[Dixielandjazz] What Happened To Jazz?

[Steve Barbone]

Received this out of the blue from cjcarey2 at yahoo.com  (Charley Carey) He
gave me permission to post it. Does anyone out there have any jazz poetry
for his radio program? If so, please send it. Charlie Suhor, are you
listening, or busy writing another book?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
  

Stephen Barbone:

Recently I read your poem  "What  Happened to Jazz?"  on my radio program,
"The Story of Jazz" and credited the leader of the Barbone Street Jazz band.
  
I'd like to mix more appropriate verse among the traditional jazz, ragtime
and blues I play if I had a source from which to draw. And though you said
you didn't know who originally wrote the piece, I thought you may have other
similar, jazz-related rhymed material among your charts so I thought I'd
"call" and ask.
  
FYI my show airs and streams Sundays from 4-5pm on WMKVFM.ORG  Locally, in
Cincinnati, that means WMKV   89.3 on the FM dial
  
Years ago I was a member of the DJML from which I copied your poem June 5,
2002.  Have I missed more good stuff in my absence?  I enjoyed the Digest
but I left because of time conflicts.
 
To answer your closing question, What are we going to do about it?" I'm
playing OKOM and plugging the area jazz bands' CDs and concert dates.
Spreading the sound.
  
I'll look forward to hearing from you.
  
Charley Carey, Host
The Story of Jazz
WMKVFM.org 
cjcarey2 at yahoo.com



>From June 5, 2002 DJML Post

What Happened to Jazz?

What's happened to jazz? Where's all the brass?
What happened to jazz? What happened to class?
There was Louis and Bix, Bechet and Bird.
Monk playing music like we'd never heard.
Count Basie and Duke and all Woody's Herds,
And how Ella could sing without any words.

Then Rock and Roll showed up one day -
Just Rhythm and Blues played a monotonous way.
Wild costumes and lasers and fireworks and all,
Smash up your axes. Then trash the hall.
"It won't last," we said, " It'll soon go away."
But it kept hanging in there, day after day.

Punk Rock, Acid Rock Heavy Metal and Rap,
They said it was music. We said it was crap.
Now it's two guys, a computer, and six amps on the stand,
With ten thousand watts and a million RAMS at hand.
Synthesizers, amplifiers, electronics and such,
They still call it music, but it don't move me much.

There's still lots of young talent. Kids really can play
North Texas lab bands turn them out every day.
But there aren't any gigs and there's no place to play -
Jam sessions where old cats show the young cats the way.
Cutting contests that last until break of day,
Where all of your peers try to blow you away.

Ah, the jazz years were sweet, and we had a good run.
We partied all night and we hid from the sun.
We drank lots of booze, smoked grass by the ton,
Played games with the chicks and quite often won.
Life was a ball---playing music was fun.
I guess we did it all. It all seems to be done.

Jazz to Hip-Hop in one hundred short years.
You can't call that progress, not if you have ears.
But it's over and done, what else can you say.
Maybe, just maybe, it'll come back some day.
What happened to music?
Pray tell, where did we goof?

What happened to jazz?
What happened to truth?


Not sure who originally wrote this. All I did was make a very few
modifications. Question: What are we going to do about it?

Steve Barbone