Last night at Iridium, a basement jazz club on Broadway and 51st Street, Park Slope’s Louis Rosen, Capathia Jenkins, their superb band, and world renowned poet Nikki Giovanni (and professor of English at Virginia Tech University) wowed the crowd with a stirring performance of songs from their new CD “An Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs.”

Giovanni spoke briefly during the show and read three of the poems that Rosen has turned into songs. Singing along quietly with the songs, Giovanni is obviously thrilled with the music, which “bring the poems to a new level,” she said.

It’s always interesting to hear the spoken word and then the musical adaptation. Giovanni’s comments were fun and telling:

“I don’t want people to think I’m always horny,” she told the crowd after a performance of the sultry and sexy song called “All I Gotta Do (Is Sit and Wait).

But the songs are about way more than sex. “Telephone Song” is a joyful song about female friendship and the phone call and “The Black Loom” is about the arts that artists have woven from the African-American influence (careful baby don’t prick your fingers).”

About “That Day” an unabashedly sexy song Louis said: “There are a lot of love songs that are really about sex. This is a sexy song that is really about love.”

Sad to say, this was the last Louis and Capathia show at Iridium for the summer.

Happy to announce: Louis and Capathia with their superb band will be at the Brooklyn Public Library Dweck Center (at the Grand Army branch) on October 14th at 4 p.m.