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Riding the Elevator Into the Sky (sample)

by Laila Salins

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Music: Laila Salins - voice and chamber jazz ensemble (sample)
Poetry: Anne Sexton
Photo of Anne Sexton from Spanish TV documentary

lyrics

Riding the Elevator into the Sky
As the fireman said:
Don’t book a room over the fifth floor in any hotel in New York.
They have ladders that will reach further but no one will climb them.
As the New York Times said: The elevator always seeks out
the floor of the fire and automatically opens and won’t shut.
These are the warnings that you must forget
if you’re climbing out of yourself.
If you’re going to smash into the sky.
Many times I’ve gone past the fifth floor, cranking upwards,
but only once have I gone all the way up.
Sixtieth floor: small plants and swans bending into their grave.
Floor two hundred: mountains with the patience of a cat,
silence wearing its sneakers.
Floor five hundred:
messages and letters centuries old, birds to drink, a kitchen of clouds. Floor six thousand: the stars, skeletons on fire, their arms singing.
And a key, a very large key, that opens something—
some useful door—somewhere—up there.

credits

released January 28, 2013
Performers: Laila Salins, vocals; Jamie Reynolds, piano; Matt Wigton, bass; Fred Kennedy, drums; Marty Ehrlich, saxophone; Jim Matus; electric guitar

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laila salins New York, New York

"Captivated the crowd" (NY Times), "exceptional in her singing ability and performing intensity (Zurich Times), Latvian vocalist Laila Salins has enjoyed a richly diverse musical career, performing chamber music, world music, jazz, tango, and music theater/opera, performing widely in Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. Her new CD, Elevator into the Sky, is with jazz chamber ensemble. ... more

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