I can’t seem to step outside myself
and these ribs don’t quite fit.
Too much heart.

This head is heavy

too much hustle, and these
fingers typed down to the bone…

Tell me,

Where do you find comfort
Let’s trade shoes.

I’ve been runnin in these things for
far too many blocks,
I need a new set to set me free
Kicking up dust on city streets,
a shoot from the hip hustler just
trying to figure out the next pay check
to eat – pay the bills – maybe have a little left over
but staying hungry.

Tell me,
Where is it you find Time, to
Figure out what’s inside?

hand me an hour of yours.
Time.

listen to me,
sit with me
pay attention
it will cost you nothing
and benefit us both,
building is supposed to be a two
sided conversation and I am ready and
waiting for anyone who wants to share their
story…

Tell me,
What you want me to know
How you want me to help
Who you need to be there for
You.

You simply need only tell me
Where to start,
and we won’t stop until we are finished:

running, hustling, building
something
Together.

Burque –
Tell me,
Is this what you expected from your son?
Is this what you expected from the sun?

Burnt, but not tired, tired, but not beat,
beats, help me keep the beat,
the pace, the hustle, the struggle is infinite
so why even acknowledge it, instead
rise above,
children of the sun,
Burque born babies building a better
Future for anyone,
willing to listen,
So tell me,

How?

Where?

When?

Who?

Can I help to hold the heart in their ribs
until it feels too big,
to keep all to his or her self.

until shared beats
are remixed in the

mud

sand

soil

clay
and built adobe strong
for a better tomorrow,

So simply tell me Burque.

Tell me,

Where shall we begin?

JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends is coming up this Tuesday (February 7th) at Jazzbah. This month’s features “friends” will be Eph’sharpe and BlesInfinite of The 2bers! In advance of this month’s show (& Etta James Tribute), you can get a FREE DOWNLOAD of a collaborative track by Hakim Be and BlesInfinite. CLICK ON THE PHOTO ABOVE to get the track at Facebook. Share with your friends and then come see it performed live at the Jazzbah on Tuesday, February 7th! Can’t wait to see you there. -hb

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact 1680PR for more information, interviews & press credentials 505.277.2580

Monthly Hip Hop/Jazz Series tackles the generation gap, honors Etta James & features the 2bers!

Celebrate Black History Month in style at Downtown’s newest Jazz Restaurant

On the first Tuesday of every month at Downtown Albuquerque’s newest jazz club, hip hop’s genetic precursor and future is on display. Jazzbah Presents: JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends is a throwback to the era of jazz poetry from which hip hop emerged. Flirted with by the likes of T.S. Eliot and E.E. Cummings; conceived by Black poets in the 20s; and maintained by Beat generation poets in the 50s, jazz poetry has been said to be reborn in hip hop music and at poetry slams.

Hakim Bellamy (AKA Hakim Be) is a two-time national champion in the poetry slam community and acts as the musical curator of the monthly series. A published poet and hip hop emcee, Bellamy also sees the future of hip hop in its jazzy origins. “Groups like The Roots, The Coup and J. Davis Trio apply improvisation to live instrumentation and lyricism,” says Bellamy. “As a result you get the ‘once in a lifetime’ jam band feeling that would come from a Grateful Dead or a Bob Marley show, but with the poetics and ‘danceability’ of hip hop.”

This month, JazzBars will feature Burque Hip Hop heroes the 2bers. Slated for their 5^th studio release in in April (D.I.G.), the 2bers are no strangers to mixing live music with the “livest” lyrics. Normally accompanied by a four-piece band and a vocalist, Eph’Sharpe (Collin Troy) and BlesInfinite (Luke Hale) will offer a sneak peek at their new material in advance of their CD release concert on April 7^th (featuring Urban Verbs). February JazzBars is getting additional star power from saxophonist and lyricist, Colin Darby (AKA Darbstar). Rounding out the all-star line-up are JazzBar alumni, Zack Freeman (lyrics, loops and beatbox) and Artha Meadors (bass).

Along with Jazzbah’s standard fare of white tablecloth cuisine, black tie service, wine menu by wine steward (and owner) Don Putz and mixology by internationally renowned drink chemist Daniel Gonzales; JazzBars puts a younger, hipper, hopper face on the establishment. Students 18 and up get into the 7pm and 9pm JazzBars shows free with student ID. The general public can see both or either show for a $12 cover.

The upcoming show on February 7^th will be dedicated to the late Etta James, who lost her battle to leukemia in January. There will be some special invited guests in the house to help with the tribute and honor Mrs. James legacy of using music to break down social, racial and generational barriers.
JazzBars with Hakim Be & Friends: The Etta James Tribute featuring the 2bers
@ Jazzbah 119 Gold Street SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Tuesday February 7th 7pm & 9pm sets
$12/2 shows
www.jazzbahabq.com

Jazzbah: Designed to evoke the taste, touch, and feel of the urban jazz club vibe, Jazzbah is the southwest’s premier destination for lovers of fine wine and dining, and true bar mixology.

You can share the press release online by sharing this link: http://fromthefrontlines.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/hakimbe-jazzbars-check-it-out-in-burque/

You can check out some JazzBars video from December to see if it’s your Cup o’Joe…here.

Dance Piece

H: Language has idioms and idiots if you ask
Me

C: You ever hear something like…

H: “Then, he breaks out into song…”

C: “She breaks into dance…”

H: But idioms aren’t literal, they’re figurative

C: And aptly so..

H: So?? If whips, rapes and chains couldn’t
Break the spirit of the songs the slaves
Sang..

C: How can someone break dance?

H: ‘Cause it’s the figures, not the language

C: The physique, not the blabber we speak
That tells unbridled truth..

H: ‘Cause bodies never lie..

C: Never lie still…

H: People dance

B: Into braids of sheets when we sleep

C: People dance

H: Just with their eyes when they lie

C: “I can’t dance..”

B: Like God gave you 650 muscles to sit still

H: Like you’ll deprive yourself life’s greatest
Joy next to sex, ‘cause you think it makes
You a minstrel..

C: But ALL people dance

B: Humanity as a history of feats by feet, the
Only universal language

H: All babies learn to speak ‘fore they speak

C: The orchestra of electricity

B: Our body conducts

C: Whether symphony or Morse-Code

H: Beep Beep

C: Heart

H: The beat

C: Mind

H: The beat

C: Beat

H: Body

C: The beat

B: Speaking to the simplest parts…

C: Of me…

H: As though the heartbeat is all we is

C: Dancing

H: Beat

C: Moving

H: Beat

C: Feeling

B: Alive, like nobody wants to feel otherwise

H: Never broken, People move

B: Like planets that would fall out of orbit
If we didn’t

C: Fluid

H: Wrists

B: And backbones

C: Shins

B: And tip toes, People move like

H: People know

C: Nobody is watching

H: That’s why substituting cardboard for
Hardwood floors was not a problem

B: ‘Cause nobody saw us

C: Until we became transformers

B: Until we became…

H: Windmills from the waist down…

C: Until we caught a glimpse of our city from
The middle of a head spin

H: Upside down…

B: It’s gorgeous

C: Steel icicles hanging from a concrete sky

C: Yup, they freeze

B: Just like us

H: In a b-boy stance or right after the cops
Arrive

H: But when you’re under the gun

C: And you’d rather die on your front flip than
Live on your knee spins

H: They don’t get why we continue to move
Even when the cops threaten us again

B: Why we POP to forget Gun Shots

B: And LOCK to avoid Cell Blocks

B: Why we float

C: They think we’re high

B: We think… we’re superhero fly

H: Like nobody wants to feel otherwise, this
Is life…

C: Art imitating imagination, in flexed bodies

B: And fragmented time

H: Adjacent bodies

C: And distorted lines, breathe from lungs

H: Pushing muscles in 360 degrees, All 650
At a time

B: Stop! ….. On a dime….

C: Just before

H: Once more

C: The body takes flight

B: On a 150 beat

C: Per minute wings

B: This turns us into the angels they said we’d
Never be…

H: This gives us the grace…
H: They said we’d never reach

C: The one high we don’t have to ever come
Down from…

B: If we please…

H: Painting the floor of the heavens beneath

B: Dreaming with our feet

C: Feeling as though we just been asked to the
Ball

B: In the palm of the creator’s hand

H: I too, would only believe…

B: In a God that knows how to dance

B: And only those who don’t understand would
Dare to call this shattered

C: Break dancing is a fix!

H: These movements are complete circles,

B: Big enough for everyone to get in

C: Even the rhythmically challenged

H: Just do the wave and nod your heads

B: Throw your hands in the air like you
Just don’t care…

H: And don’t care…

C: For a few minutes

H: A few movements

B: We repair spirits with jack hammers and
Other break dance illusions!

C: Solved the problems of gravity

B: And Poverty, with our 6 step program

H: Uprock addicts, our rehab, is to practice

B: six steps and hand stands

C: The only thing broken, is the legacy of
Conventional dancing

B: ‘Cause the break stands for the broke,
Brown and black kids who couldn’t
Afford contemporary dance classes

H: But they had to…

C: So they did.

H: Couldn’t move out of the hood

B: So they moved IN it instead, and let the
World know, we were there!

(PAUSE FOR CITY VOICE OVER)

C: Beneath planet rocks that they would have
Never picked up

B: If it wasn’t for us…

H: Finally speaking to the world in body counts
Beyond the narrow lens of nightly news

C: In a ONE and a TWO

H: ONE TWO ONE TWO

(ONE TWO THREE B.I.G.)

C: Counting our bodies as Tony Awards

H: Counting our bodies as Works of Art!

B: The only thing we own… The world’s
Favorite metaphor.

C: Been called

H: The poetry of the foot, The hidden language

C: Of the soul…

B: A poem.

H: In which every movement is a word.

C: Souls of feet outlining, forever in a moment

B: Forever in 650 muscles of movement
B: Until time… Stops!