If I Could Be With You

The onetime political activist and longtime jazz and blues enthusiast declaims his verse over a pretty good big band. Though it celebrates the unconventional, jazz poetry is itself a convention (the breathless, exalted cadences, the unreflective hero worship of Bird-Bud-Diz and other bebop icons) that can easily slip into unintentional self-parody. John Sinclair has the right heroes, but his indie odes and scratchy voice get on your nerves before If I Could Be With You‘s 64 long minutes are over. B-