专辑简介

Marvin Tate got his start reading and performing poetry in the early 70's, on the school yards of North Lawndale, one of Chicagos' most impoverished neighborhoods. After a brief stint in college, Tate went to NYC to pursue a career in music and theater- the closest he got was marrying a Swedish call girl. They later divorced, and Tate moved back to Chicago. His career quickly took off as he discovered Chicago's booming 'Performance Poetry" scene. He quickly established himself as one of its more innovative performers, performing with Amari Baraka, Paul Beatty, Nikki Giovanni, and Annie Sprinkle. Tate also published his first book of poetry, 'Schoolyard of Broken Dreams' by Tia ChuCha Press.

In 1993 Tate met multi-instrumentalist LeRoy Bach, and they began a musical partnership that continues strong to this day. Around that time Tate also put formed his band D-settlement, whose live shows combined raucous soul, spoken word, performance art, punk, and ghoulish gospel. In a span of ten years, D-settlement shared the stage with Ken Nordine, Bernie Worrell, Euphone, Antibalas, Kelly Hogan, the Last Poets, the late Wesly Willis, and members of the AACM. D-settlement broke up in 2003, and Tate and Bach quickly began work on "Family Swim."