Kristi Stassinopoulou

Windham Hotel
Kristi Stassinopoulou - Taxidoscopio

(from the album taxidoscopio)

Montreal, Canada, July 2000, 21st International Jazz Festival

The Windham Hotel is a skyscraper in the center of Montreal, which hosts, every July, the musicians and bands performing at the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal. In the rooms of the upper floors, all day long musicians can be heard warming up their instruments, while at night, when the concerts are over and the city streets empty, the musicians gather in the hotel’s lounge, they get to know each other and jam. I sketch the view from the big window of our room on the 12th floor.

 

I hear a saxophone

from the corridor’s end

and I come out of the room

there’s a party on the ground floor

Drinks and jam sessions

with the musicians of the world

all kinds of feelings

tangled within me

 

How did I get here

in the corridors of the Windham?

in a musical cauldron

in the streets of Montreal?

Young, old and children

Βlacks, Whites and Asians

dance to the musics

from the corners of the earth

And their hearts are open

their bodies loose

in front of open air stages

with electrified speakers

 

The whole city is here

reveling in the festival

in French and English

people speak to me

«You played well the other night

when will you be coming back?

And if you like in our houses

come and stay

Bring us the music

from your country

So that we all become one village

the time is finally here!»

 

A global village

in the centre of Montreal

and like the Windham tall

grew the tree of music

 

Translated in English by Alexandra Alexandri