We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Siege Of Leningrad (1941​-​1944 A​.​D​.​)

from Evolution by Tommy Smith

/

lyrics

The Siege Of Leningrad (1941-1944 A.D.)

Enormous icy Ladoga, lake for giants,
cracked quietly in the fog and under the cracks
artillery threw across a whistling darkness.
I hunched into my furs, made for the city.
On the outskirts, black figures crouched
to scoop up water from broken pipes
below the snow. Over the snow
sledges loaded with the dead
were dragged by the half-dead.
A gaunt dog slunk near. Bury them quick!
Hunger is in his ribs and he cannot howl
but he can eat! The millions besieged
can eat, five ounces of bread a day,
two glasses of hot water, a rat if caught,
then gnaw some leather, wrap in rugs,
wait for the droning overhead.

Music: what was that! I passed a hall,
peered in: huddled crowd, breath, baton,
dim flash of brass. Crashed of Shostakovich
crushed the frost and raced through the blood.
How could those hearts ever surrender?
Pinched noses and grey flesh, all right; they starved;
hospitals, factories, pipe-line under Ladoga,
Peter the Great's children, yes, Lenin's children,
say what you will, they held the line. They live
like myself who visit everything
but do not always stand in awe like this
as shells shriek through the innocent flakes
and print the north in blood.

I watched
wave after wave of bombers darken the sky.
That night the great observatory was hit.
The eye of Pulkovo searching for Barnard's Star
went blind as the lake its frozen companion
that guarded it and was guarded by it -
until the pain should be melted and the people
sing in the harmless moon of their white nights.

Edwin Morgan

credits

from Evolution, released February 25, 2021
Tommy Smith - Tenor Saxophone
Joe Lovano - Tenor Saxophone
John Scofield - Guitar
John Taylor - Piano
John Patitucci - Acoustic Bass
Bill Stewart - Drums

Music by Tommy Smith published by Smythe Music, PRS
Poetry by Edwin Morgan commissioned by Tommy Smith
Recorded April 2003 Avatar Studios, New York City
Engineer: James Farber
Mastering from Analogue Tape: Ben Turner, Fine Splice
Photography: Paul Thorburn
Cover photo of Smith: Robert Burns

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Tommy Smith image

Tommy Smith Edinburgh, UK

Born in 1967, Edinburgh. In 1983 Chick Corea recommended Tommy Smith to Gary Burton; he joined his group. Recording over 30 solo albums for Blue Note, Linn, ECM, Spartacus Records, touring 50+ countries, performing with Arild Andersen, Edwin Morgan, John Scofield, Jaco Pastorius, Trilok Gurtu, Dizzy Gillespie. In 2019, he was awarded an OBE for services to jazz from HRH Queen Elizabeth II. ... more

contact / help

Contact Tommy Smith

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Tommy Smith, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Seafood Sam joins the show to discuss his newest album, " Standing On Giant Shoulders".
listen now