A unique and powerful collaboration between legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter of Local 802 (New York City) and novelist, poet, and abstract expressionist painter Danny Simmons.

This live recording from BRIC House in Brooklyn captured the Tony Award-winning Simmons, the co-founder of Def Poetry Jam, reading poetry from his collection of prose, The Brown Beatnik Tomes, with projections of his own abstract expressionist paintings providing the stage backdrop while Carter, the veteran of Miles Davis’ band and more than 2,200 sessions, performed solo accompaniment along with instrumental interludes from his fleet trio.

“I hear the rhythm and cadence in my head when I write,” says Simmons. “To stand up there and have to reproduce that with somebody as accomplished as Ron was a little… I’m going to say ‘terrifying.’ Basically, I let him do his thing and I followed.”