Spoken word album

A spoken word album is a record album that does not consist mainly of music or songs, but of spoken material. It could be said to be the ancestor of today's audiobook format. Spoken word albums range from such items as recordings of actual political speeches and/or dramatic readings of historical documents, to dialogue from the soundtrack of a film, to condensed dramatized versions of literary classics, to complete performances of plays by Shakespeare or other great authors, to stories for children, or to standup comedy routines recorded live in nightclubs.

Early beginnings

Spoken word albums have been made since the early days of recording; examples include the popular Ronald Colman 1941 version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on American Decca Records. However, a true milestone was reached when Columbia Masterworks, which had previously released an album of excerpts from Shakespeare's Richard II with Maurice Evans, made a complete recording of Margaret Webster's famed (and never filmed) 1943 Broadway production of Othello, starring Paul Robeson, José Ferrer, and Uta Hagen, on an 18-record 78-RPM set running a total of two hours and eight minutes. It was later transferred to LP. It was the longest spoken word album made up to that time. The album gave millions of listeners who otherwise were unable to attend a theatrical performance a chance to hear Robeson as Othello and Ferrer as Iago.

Spoken word

Spoken word is a style of entertainment involving performance-based poetry that primarily focuses on the aesthetics of word play and story-telling. It often includes collaboration and experimentation with other art forms such as music, theater, and dance. Performers may weave in poetic components - such as rhyme, repetition, rhythm, improvisation, and other traditional elements of poetry.

History

The art of spoken word has existed for many millennia. The tradition of the spoken word is particular to cultures around the world when oral traditions were the means to pass on the genealogical, historical, cultural knowledge and traditions of different geographical sects of indigenous peoples and civilizations; it was particularly steeped in the African traditions that also included drumming and dancing as a means to reinforce cultural mores, spiritual incantations, social practices and world views. This can also be evidenced in Native American and Aboriginal cultures. The Ancient Greeks included Greek lyric which is similar to spoken-word poetry in their Olympic Games.

Spoken Word (film)

Spoken Word is a 2009 drama directed by Victor Nuñez and stars Kuno Becker, Ruben Blades, Miguel Sandoval and Persia White.

The writers include William T. Conway and Joe Ray Sandoval. The movie was produced by Karen Koch and William T. Conway. The film opened in NYC at Big Cinemas Manhattan 1 on July 23, 2010 and played in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Sunset 5 on July 30, 2010.

Plot

A Latino San Francisco spoken word artist returns home to Santa Fe, New Mexico to reconnect with his dying father and brother, finding himself losing his "voice" as he spirals downward back into the dysfunctional life of drugs and violence he had left behind.

Cast

References

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