Words & music: 'Symphony of Crickets' project combines a Boston poet, a singer and a four-piece band

Reflecting the multiple talents of the man at its center, a new show that marries spoken word and music will tour both traditional theaters and music venues from Wellfleet to West Yarmouth over the next few weeks.

“A Symphony of Crickets,” which opens its string of seven performances Friday in Wellfleet, stars and is based on the poetry of award-winning African American writer and musician Charles Coe. The show will involve him reading some of his work, plus “musical interludes” created by a five-piece ensemble that will perform pieces inspired by what the poems have to say.

Styles will include jazz, funk, R&B, Delta blues and classical, and the aim, according to publicity for the show, is to outline “in words and tones the breadth of the American musical experience.”

Accompanying Coe’s readings will be songwriter and guitarist Mark van Bork, internationally known composer and saxophonist/flautist Ken Field, Boston-based drummer Phil Neighbors and bassist Blake Newman, and Cape vocalist Darlene van Alstyne.

The idea to create “some kind of thematic concert performance” came up about a year ago, says Field, in conversations between him and van Bork. Field’s partner, Cecily Miller, who has long been friends with the Boston-based Coe, suggested the poet/teacher’s participation, and everyone was enthusiastic, Field says.

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“I asked Charles if he could send me some of his poems that had some reference to music,” Field says, noting Coe is also a musician. “He sent us this amazing sampling that referenced all different kinds of music — from classical music to jazz standards, Ella Fitzgerald to James Brown to blues, Scott Joplin and George Gershwin. Just this incredible range.”

The musicians used those words to craft an hour-or-so-long “A Symphony of Crickets” program, with music choices tied to the genres or themes of the poems being used. The words and music are connected, Field says, “sometimes peripherally, sometimes very specifically, but in different ways. We have incorporated the music, in some cases, as an introduction to the poem, in some cases, as a postscript to the poem and in some cases, during the reading we’re playing music.”

Field describes the result as an exciting, powerful and “cool project. I’m thrilled to be able to work with Charles, who is pretty brilliant, and the rest of the group.”

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Describing Coe’s work, Field says: “I was just blown away by his poetry, by his use of language, his ability to observe things that most people miss.” Field says he was also impressed by Coe’s “willingness to talk about his own upbringing as a young Black man.”

To reach different audiences in different geographical locations, performances will be at various times in Provincetown, Wellfleet, West Yarmouth and Brewster. Four shows are at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster, which Field says has helped members of the group produce and develop the program. He also mentions the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod for helping with funding to meet some of the challenges of performers needing to be together to rehearse, but living from Boston to Provincetown with busy schedules on other projects.

Setting the order of the show has also been a work in progress, with the opener now expected to be Coe singing a piece called “Black and Gold Blues,” and the title poem heard later on based in part on balancing tempos and themes.

That order, and other parts of the program, could also change depending on audience reaction between the first performance on July 15 and the last on Aug. 30. Or even later: Field says the group is hoping to take the program to Boston or elsewhere beyond Cape Cod in the future.

“I'm a jazz musician, I deal with improvisation and I like the energy of change, of things being able to be fluid and not be the same every night,” he says.

To see “A Symphony of Crickets”

When and where: 5 p.m. Friday, July 15, Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 335 Main St.; https://www.wellfleetpreservationhall.org

When and where: 9 p.m. Sunday, July 17, The Music Room, 541 Main St., West Yarmouth; https://www.musicroomcapecod.com/

When and where: 7 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays, July 18-19 and Aug. 29-30 at Cape Rep Theatre, 3299 Main St. (Route 6A), Brewster; https://caperep.org

When and where: 5 p.m. Sunday, July 31 at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House of Provincetown, 236 Commercial St. as part of the “Great Music on Sundays @5” series; https://ptownmusic.com, https://gmsat5asymphonyofcrickets.brownpapertickets.com

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Poetry, music: 'Symphony of Crickets' stars Charles Coe, 4 musicians