Words & Music
In 2004, Alford began integrating music and sounds with teaching, creating innovative lessons.  He has used recordings in English Composition, American Literature, Creative Nonfiction, Creative Writing and Contemporary Black Fiction.

The following recordings were created using FutureDecks pro, Cubase LE 4 andMixMeister Fusion software.

Mixed using

"American Boy" from  the Shine album,
The cover song from My Heavenly Home
by Mary Alford (Bruce's mother),
"The Other Side" from Cyclone Rangers,
various sound effects and
an excerpt from the poem "Musper" by Bruce Alford.

Excerpt:

Beauty Mixed so deviously
with the destructive forces of the flames
My tired eyes were still not satisfied
They were as all-consuming as the fire
Spinning up its ashes ever higher

This man raked around the edges of the pile
A swarm of embers rose into the air
I cocked my head and watched them swirl around
The mealworm specks were ready to devour
the swollen clouds that tumbled overhead

I think
Aaah this is a picture painted perfectly
Dizzy from the dance I start to swoon
I stumble back but dare not look away
from this overhanging firmamental dream
this candid do-si-do of joyous forms

My tired eyes were still not satisfied
They seemed to be as greedy as the grave

The shifting wind blew smoke into my eyes
They filled with blood Then they began to burn
In spite of pain I would not close my lids
from the mesmerizing crackle of the flames
My eyes had made a pact with death and hell

Only until my eyes had overflown
with tears did I relent to let them blink
Then I remembered the promise I had made
I closed my lids and filaments of light
slashed across the blackness of my mind

Mixed using

Ultramagnetic MC’s Break North
Hank Lazer's Days 18
& Lazer-gun Sound Effects


Ultramagnetic Mc’s
New York Hip Hop revolutionaries Ced-Gee, Kool Keith, Moe Luv and T.R. Love, collectively known as Ultramagnetic Mc’s, dropped their freewheeling, forward thinking Critical Beatdown in 1988 where it immediately pushed the boundaries of hip hop into new horizons.  Hailed as a masterpiece by the underground, Critical Beatdown, showcased a unique rhyming approach and innovative production work that remains to this day— a timeless classic.
Mfd. For BMG Direct
Student Sound Play  English 101


This recording  was produced by students in English Composition 101.
Students worked in groups of four, but each student was responsible for his or her own production.

Group members provided characters/actors and written/peer critiques.

A short essay accompanied the play.  The essay connected an essay type such as "exploration" or "description" to the play.

Three writing assignments came out of this one lesson: 

  • The play
  • The peer critique
  • and the short explanatory essay.


The play also included vocabulary words.

Hank Lazer
In 2001, Inge Bruggeman of INK-A! Press published a fine press artist’s book Simple Harmonic Motions consisting of eight poems from Lazer’s Days, along with a CD of the author reading the poems and performing them with the Alabama Poetry Ensemble. The book won first place for artists’ books at the Northwest Bookfest. In 2002, Lavender Ink published the complete Days—a 160 page collection which is a laboratory space for experimentation with the resources and possibilities of the short line and for new modes of lyricism. Lyn Hejinian calls Days “a book filled with joy.” Norman Fischer writes that “these are beautiful—and peaceful—poems, signs of a mind and hand immediate with its materials.”
Written in the style of Robert Frost and adapted for
music: 

While poetry relies on implication and concision, music relies more on rhythm.  Compare the excerpt of Frost's poem with "Musper," and you'll see that his poem is much more compact and uses fewer adverbs and helping verbs.  Musper would be considered "horrible poetry."


The Wood-Pile excerpt

It was a cord of maple, cut and split
And piled—and measured, four by four by eight.
And not another like it could I see.
No runner tracks in this year’s snow looped near it.
And it was older sure than this year’s cutting,
Or even last year’s or the year’s before.
The wood was gray and the bark warping off it
And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis
Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.
What held it, though, on one side was a tree
Still growing, and on one side a stake for a prop,
These latter about to fall. I thought that only
Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks
Could so forget his handiwork on which
He spent himself, the labor of his ax,
And leave it there far from a useful fireplace
To warm the frozen swamp as best it could
With the slow smokeless burning of decay.
3
I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.

Those words were written by Composer John Cage who passed away in 1992.  Cage was a pioneer in the use of electronic music and natural sound.  I have an affinity to Cage's work, with its indiscriminating preference for chance and innovation.  I appreciate Cage's intense interest toward  the spaces between the notes.  However, I must admit, it took me a while to come to this understanding.  I can still remember sitting in a graduate class at the University of Alabama, watching a film of Cage sitting at a piano "performing" his best known piece, 4'33.  It was four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence.  Annoyed and bored, I thought at the time, "What is this!"

Now, I've learned how to "read" the unfamiliar.

Sometimes, there is no Right Way to interpret a thing or a Correct Way to do a thing.  Often, and this is true of life, there is no script.
Recordings from the We the People, We the Poets Poetry Reading
Mix of Poem Read by Lasondra Tucker, a 102 English Composition Student  on Constitution Day 09/17/09

It's the resounding voice for our land proclaiming to citizen's rights the same,

The director force for a more perfect union

With words that brings unfairness to shame.
"We the People" Performed by P.T. Paul, Recorded and Mixed by Bruce Alford. Remix entitled "Oral Dixie."

We the people are these United States,
the black, yellow, brown, red, white and blue states,
the straight, gay, bi, tran, I love you, states,
the “hatred is whack, what are we gonna do,” states,
I can be I and you can be you states,
but nobody else can tell us what to do states.

We the people got the right to be free states,
right to ride the subway, hop a plane, take a train states,
sail around the world if that’s what we want to do states,
stay at home, have a beer, barbeque some ribs states,
drive across country without anyone saying “halt” states,
north, east, west, south, live anywhere we want states.

We the people ain’t a piece of paper on the wall states,
not a flag flapping in the breeze on the fourth of July states,
we the people are the go to school, get a job, go-to-work, states,
build a home, plant a tree, paint a fence, mow the lawn states,
every day sing a song about what we want to be states,
we the people are all of us, not just the you and me states.

We the people got some hard choices to make states,
guarantee this freedom to our little girls and boys states,
step up to the line and say “NO” to those who hate states,
lay down the law and stand up for our rights states,
honor those who give their lives so we can be free states,
exercise our rights and take responsibility for these states.

We the people come from everywhere to these United States,
speak dozens of languages, but all of them say “free” states,
guaranteed the right to pursue what happiness may be states,
gotta make sure it doesn’t end with you and me states,
pay it forward, cause these are “freedom ain’t free” states,
make the dream the reality we all want them to be states.

P.T. Paul and Professor Alford at the Constitution Day Poetry Reading