Conviction
by Taylor Mali
Wordsworth Ink & The WordSmith Press, 2003
list price $15
Sample tracks at TaylorMali.com
First the disclaimer: I have known Taylor Mali since he burst onto the Poetry Slam scene at the 1994 National Poetry Slam held in Asheville, North Carolina. Mali dominated the Nationals that year with his sense of humor and spot-on ability to mimic any poet.
Let’s start with the CD’s cover art. Don’t you buy your recordings based on the artwork? Don’t all great records start with a cool look? The Beatles strolling the crosswalk, the Who zipping up after a piss, the baby floating on Nirvana’s Nevermind, Janis Joplin’s Cheap Thrills, Sleater Kinney’s One Beat.... all are images that capture something of their time and help to define that time. Vadim Litvak nails the retro Beatnik look on the cover of Conviction, and his design clues you in to the playfulness of the album.
The most energetic aspects of Conviction are the group or multi-voice pieces captured live at readings -- as a matter of fact, the CD is billed as Mali’s first 100% live album. “Running a Race (No One Knows)” by Celena Glenn crackles with verve and shows off Taylor’s rudimentary beat boxing skills, which for a white guy are actually damn good. “How to Write a Political Poem,” a duo with George McKibbens, sends up cliched slam and hiphop poems and gives McKibbens a spotlight for his considerable comic talent. “Coming out Duet” with Reggie Cabico highlights Mali as the premier metro-sexual of the poetry scene.
Because it includes Mali’s performances of other poets’ work (like Glenn’s and Cabico’s) and other poets’ readings of Mali’s work (like “What My Father Said of Sex” recited by John S. Hall), Conviction really takes off and distinguishes itself from other spoken word projects. It shows the extent of Mali’s influence on the performance poetry scene and combines the appeal of an individual album with the breadth of an anthology.
Where Conviction falls down -- and this is a minor point -- is in the rough sound quality of some of the tracks. I think the energy in the recordings makes up for this, but one still hopes for a little less hiss on a few of the tracks.
If I were programming Mali’s next project, I would like to see his writing spiced up with a little of Neruda’s metaphor and perhaps a hint of Lorca’s prophecy. To complete the poetic stew, one could add a dash of Szymborska’s ability to surprise. Mali does show some of this kind of depth in “Time and Tears Enough” and “Seventh Grade Viking Warrior” -- so it is my guess that he has the talent to write at any level he chooses. He chooses to be one of our most accessible poets, and that accessibility has brought him many fans and much success. Conviction is a hit and a pleasure. It makes a great addition to any poetry collection, and it is that rarest of spoken word records: it makes you laugh out loud.
