Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Bird Head Son
(CD) Heavenly Sweetness / Naïve, 2009-01-13

Tracklisting :
01. Vero 6:14
02. Blues For cousin Alvin 4:55
03. The Bamboo Saxophone 3:29
04. Jungle 12:04
05. Bird Head Son 8:40
06. Cutlass 6:21
07. His Hands 5:19
08. Two Inch Limbo 6:21
09. Conductors of His Mystery 7:31
10. River of Masks 4:51
11. Robberman 3:28
12. Dream on Corbeau Mountain 3:46

Links :
Anthony Joseph : official | blogspot | discogs | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter | wikipedia | youtube
Heavenly Sweetness : blogspot | discogs | ebay | facebook | myspace | parisdjs | soundcloud | twitter


Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band ft Joe Bowie "Conductors of his Mystery" , Rennes, France


Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band live in Portugal - Robberman

Biography :
"afro-blue to astro-black and what glimmers in between" - The Times

"Joseph employs a syncretic, diasporic and highly innovative blend of genres and styles, providing an example of how diaspora becomes subject, inspiration and rationale for the innovative use of form, while experimental traditions enable him to show the diaspora in a fresh light." - Dr. Lauri Ramey, Professor of English, California State University, Los Angeles.

"The African Origins of UFOs tracks the pull of place and the pull away from place, Afro-blue to astro-black and what glimmers in between. "Genetic contraband" and "bootleg melanin" afford a measure of the job it takes on. Possessing or possessed by requisite bearings, language and lore, Anthony Joseph is fully and beautifully up to the task." - Nathaniel Mackey

"The leader of the Black avant-garde" - Ilkley Literature Festival

This is great new 'second generation' Caribbean stuff – movin away from the script & the scruff – or ratha – betta! – writin upon it – over and under it – a palimpsest to rahtid! – pouring out images like Eno's – or UFOs!!!" - Kamau Brathwaite

"Anthony Joseph is a talented writer with a powerful imagination." - Linton Kwesi Johnson

Anthony Joseph is one of the leading writers of his generation. Born in Trinidad, his experimental poetry, fiction, music and spoken word performances fuse Calypso rhythms with a postmodern eye, creating what he calls 'liquid textology'.
Joseph is the author of two poetry collections, Desafinado and Teragaton and the spoken-word CD Liquid Textology, in addition to releases featuring his Jazz Quartet The Spasm Band. He cites his main influences as Jazz, Calypso, the Spiritual Baptist rhythms of his childhood, the Trinidadian dialect, Surrealism and language poetry.
In September 2004, he was selected by the Arts Council England as one of 50 writers for the historic photo "A Great Day." as one of fifty Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature. The event was instigated by Melanie Abrahams of renaissance one and took place at on the steps of the British Library in a homage to the famous Harlem Jazz photo of the same name.
In April 2005, Joseph served as the British Council's first poet-in-residence at California State University, Los Angeles. He has also read at The Chicago Humanities Festival, Festa International De La Literatura, Barcelona, Spain, The Bowery, New York, Rutgers University, UCLA, Howard University, Washington, Ilkley and Durham Literature Festivals and at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Joseph's debut novel, The African Origins of UFOs was published by Salt Publishing in November 2006. It has been described as an "afro-psychadelic-noir", a work of metafiction, mythology, Afro-futurism, and a future fiction classic. An excerpt from the novel was included in the critically acclaimed Time Warner anthology Dark Matter: A century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora.
To support the publication, Joseph recieved an Arts Council Touring award and read throughout the UK in 2006-2007

He is well known for his performances with The Spasm Band. The band's debut album Leggo de Lion was released in April 2007 by Kindred Spirits. The Spasm Band toured the Europe and North Africa during much of 2007 in support of the album, appearing at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Rotterdam, Jazz au Chellah in Rabat, Morocco and the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Paris.
A new collection of poetry the 'Bird Head Son' is due in January 2009 alongside a new Spasm Band album also titled 'Bird Head Son'.
As an academic, Joseph has taught creative writing at University of Surrey Roehampton, and at University of North London, where he taught science fiction writing. He currently lectures in creative writing at Birkbeck College and at Goldsmiths College where he is a doctoral candidate with an interest in poetics and dislocated narratives.

See Anthony's blog for work in progress, essays and random instances from the Diasporic Avant garde.