aka Poez
New York City, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 1976 | SELF
Music
Press
Accompaniment also overwhelmed movement in "Spontaneous Combustion," to a poem read by a poet who calls himself Poez. The most interesting section of the piece simply consisted of a sonic fantasia based on rearrangements of the syllables in the dance's title. - The New York Times
Poez is a voice musician who made up his name from a combination of "poetry" and "jazz," a young man with a flow of words like a river, words stored up in his mind and drawn on at will, words that pour out of him as he stands with his eyes half closed, his head thrown back and moving in rhythm with the phrases, his voice traveling through key changes, rising and falling, like a chautauqua orator, like a soap-box preacher, like a jazz instrument, like someone for whom talking is breathing. - New York Daily News
One remembers only a rather ingenious pas de trois at the start of an over-long ballet, "Intuition"; a pretty duo-flirt, the opening ensemble "American Nights," of the very intriguing chanted recital of a repetitive American poem, "Spontaneous Combustion," performed by its author, Poez, a temperament gifted with an astonishing and unexpected vocal presence. - Le Figaro (Paris)
What was remarkable was the incredible and extraordinary performance of the poems "Intuition" and "Spontaneous Combustion" by their author Poez, with whom words suddenly become rhythm and music. - Le Quotidien (Paris)
"I feel like a bit of a crusader," says Poez, aka Paul Mills, who is currently performing what he characterizes as "poesy," a highly dramatic and engaging combination of poetry and jazz in clubs, parks and on street corners around New York.
Mills, a former writer for magazines like FUSION and CREEM, plays his voice as a violinist moves the bow across the strings, forcing out sounds that evoke varied experiences -- taxicabs, love, junk food, loneliness. ...
The "poesy" option thus seemed the perfect solution, allowing Poez to go beyond the writing, beyond the performing, into a personal portrayal that is a virtual song. - The Aquarian
Discography
January 1982: Think and Do, on compilation Vol. 1 No. 9 CooP - Fast Folk Musical Magazine
June 1983: Spontaneous Combustion b/w The New Wave Pizzeria, Jasmine Records (single, vinyl)
September 1983: Fred Astaire Meets Dr. Seuss, Survivor Records (LP guest track, vinyl)
October 19, 2008: The Monotone (11 track CD).
His recent October 19, 2008 performance at New York's Cornelia Street Cafe celebrated the debut of his first album, "The Monotone," now available on iTunes.
Copies of the CD and copies of his book THE POETRY DOLLARS (New York, 2007, Bowery Poetry Books) are available through Nimbit Music at http://www.nimbitmusic.com/akapoez. Visit the artist's website, www.poezthepoet.com.
Photos
Bio
For full electronic press kit, go to:
http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=172709
For hi-res photos, audio and video samples, click buttons above.
A SPOKEN-WORD PIONEER
Recognized by The New York Times as "a spoken word pioneer", his career trajectory has taken Paul L. Mills aka Poez from the sidewalks of Boston's Harvard Square and Greenwich Village to concert stages in Paris and New York, radio and television in New York, Boston, Prague.
AN ASTONISHING AND UNEXPECTED VOICE
There has really never been anyone else quite like him. "A sonic fantasia," said The New York Times in a prior review. "A voice musician ... a young man with a flow of words like a river ... like a jazz instrument" is how The New York Daily News described Paul L. Mills aka Poez. "Plays his voice as a violinist moves the bow across the strings ... beyond the writing, beyond the performing, to a personal portrayal that is a virtual song" The Aquarian Weekly. "An astonishing and unexpected voice," were the words used by Le Figaro (Paris), "Incredible and extraodinary ... words suddenly become rhythm and music" agreed Le Quotidien (Paris), of his concert engagement at Le Theatre du Rond-Point on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, when Patrice Regnier's RUSH Dance Company joined him in live performance of his original work, "Spontaneous Combustion."
He has performed in New York at, among other venues, The Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways, Theater for the New City, the Ridiculous Theater, LaMama ETC, the Cornelia Street Cafe, the Bowery Poetry Club, and the Sidewalk Cafe/Anti-Folk Festival, as well as in radio and television appearances, sharing the bill with performers such as Mose Allison, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, William Burroughs, and Richard Hell.
His writing has been published in Boston's Fusion Magazine, along with that of Lou Reed, Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, New Yorker essayist Hendrik Hertzberg, and UK television personality Loyd Grossman.
He has worked at times as a cab driver, civil rights trial lawyer, actor, bouncer, and philosophy book salesman; lived in Washington, DC; Highland Park, Illinois; Marblehead, Massachusetts; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Artistic influences include Indian Dhrupad singers The Dagar Brothers; comedian Lenny Bruce; poet Dylan Thomas; the Firesign Theater; poet Amiri Baraka; and jazz vocalist Mose Allison.
Paul L. Mills aka Poez presently resides in New York City near Central Park with his wife, singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega.
A collection of selected writings, THE POETRY DOLLARS (Bowery Books, New York, 2007), is available online at www.amazon.com.
His CD, "The Monotone," is now available on iTunes. Tracks are now in rotation on The Que 98.2 FM, Radio Electric, Uptown Jazz Network, and Indie 104 Iradio LA.
Band Members
Links
