"...a union of song, jazz, and poetry – an artistic collaboration of the first rank...They're real. They give voice to our thoughts." Sue Fink Born from a chance musical encounter at Chicago’s Uptown Poetry Slam in 2017, the Last Word Quintet is a collaboration between four of Chicago's more active musicians & songwriters, with Marc Kelly Smith, a performance poet and a leader of the worldwide poetry slam movement. In an intense and amazingly short period of time they seamlessly wove Marc's original and classic poetry with Al Day's vocals and lyrics to form a collection of pieces illustrating multi-dimensional tales of urban life. With pianist Bob Long, bassist Doug Lofstrom and saxophonist Brian Gephart, Last Word creates vivid worlds to be explored. As Robert Rodi wrote in New City, "it's apparent we're hearing an entirely new kind of poetic conversation, and it's thrilling." Joining the quintet on Falling to Earth is drummer Sarah Allen.