BIG TALENT BEHIND 'LITTLE NOISES'

'Little Noises' puts poet's work to music

By Jim Bessman Sat Jun 4, 1:04 AM ET NEW YORK (Billboard) - She has "always been a words and music person," but until her two-disc "Little Noises" project came about, Marcia Pelletiere admits she "never thought they would come together."

The poet/singer/songwriter is a founding member of award-winning a cappella
group the Accidentals. Pelletiere's album, out now on her own Saf'lini Music
label, features 26 of her poems set to music and performed by such esteemed East
Coast acts as Suzzy and Terre Roche, Vernon Reid, Joy Askew, Richard Barone,
Catherine Russell and the Accidentals themselves.

"I'd written songs for other groups but gave it up when I started writing poetry
15 years ago," says Pelletiere, whose work has since appeared in journals and
anthologies including the Southern Poetry Review and Painted Bride Quarterly.

"Many people write songs with incredibly profound lyrics, but I could never get
what I wanted to say in that form."

Vocally trained in classical choral music, Pelletiere figured her poetry might
best be paired with such a classical composer as Randall Thompson, whose setting
of Robert Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star" was her introduction to
poetry-through-song. "But I couldn't figure out how to put pop and classical and
serious literary influences into one pot," she says.

But six years of collaborating with many of the "Little Noises" participants on
Barone's "Downtown Messiah" productions and Hal Willner's multi-artist album
tributes to Thelonious Monk and Walt Disney pointed the way for Pelletiere.
"Downtown Messiah" soloist AnnMarie Milazzo -- who co-wrote and performed the "Little Noises" title track -- read Pelletiere's unpublished poetry manuscript
and wanted to write music for her words.

PRESERVING THE WORK

"I've often thought of Charles Whiteside, who sang bass in the Accidentals and
died of AIDS, whom we never recorded," Pelletiere says. "And here were all these
extraordinary musicians who should be put together to preserve what happens in
the music scene. So I went to Margaret Dorn -- goddess of the universe --
because I knew if she was involved it would happen."

Dorn is the choir director/soloist for "Downtown Messiah" and a member of the
Accidentals. She has sung with the likes of Bette Midler and Willie Nelson; her
songwriting credits include tunes for Karen Carpenter and Melba Moore. Dorn
produced "Little Noises" and composed and performed its track "Man Mine."

"She took a poem about throwing dishes at someone I was living with and turned
it into a love song!" Pelletiere marvels.

"Everyone had the freedom to do it their own way," Dorn says. "And we got a huge variety of wonderful submissions -- which is what we wanted."

Askew, who has accompanied Joe Jackson and Rodney Crowell and whose most recent album, "Echo," teamed her with electronic jazz musician Takuya Nakamura, was roused by Pelletiere's poem "Lake Calhoun.""It was so incredibly inspiring that I wrote (the music) almost straight off,"

Askew says. "It was so visual. And I'm a visual person and don't have to make an
academic ventre out of writing a song and let it come organically."

Many of the "Little Noises" cuts are getting airplay on outlets including XM Satellite Radio's the Village (channel 15) and non-profit WBAI-FM New York. An
album release party at New York club Satalla last month showcased many of the artists.

Pelletiere is now shopping the poetry manuscript that engendered the album.

Reuters/Billboard