The Infinity Sessions

In The Infinity Sessions, T. R. Hummer achieves a radical act of translation, creating poems that project the narrative of twentieth century America implicit in the syncopated rhythms of jazz and blues. Hummer boldly stands up as a poet and rides with some of the obscure greats with whom he feels a deep kinship--Jimmie Lunceford, Adrian Rollini, Big Maybelle Smith, and Sun Ra--in a dazzling poetic cycle as melodic, surprising, and improvisational as the finest of jazz music. His vaultingly ambitious collection is a work of grace and nuance, its conveyance of music in words incisively original in achieving this "impossible" translation.