American, St. Louis-based veteran poet-educator K. Curtis Lyle was a founding member of the Watts Writers Workshop, joining it in 1966 and becoming a prominent member of the Los Angeles renaissance that the group represented. He is known for his seminal collaboration with reed master Julius Hemphill on the album The Collected Poem for Blind Lemon Jefferson (Mbari, 1971), and his poem “Drunk on God” was recorded for Julius Hemphill’s Big Band (Elektra, 1988). Only recently, Lyle recorded his poetry again with musicians, in collaborations with double bass player Damon Smith (29 Birds You Never Heard and A Radio Of The Body – 7 Neutrino Broadcasts Searching For 8, Balance Point Acoustics, 2024).
American, St. Louis-based young violinist Alex Cunningham is a frequent collaborator of
