[Dixielandjazz] Jazz and Poetry

[Fred Spencer]

Dear Steve.

An addition to your non-OKOM piece. Cheers.

FRED

JAZZ POETRY

Poetry has been a small part of jazz literature and deserves more 
recognition than it has received. There is a sampling of poetry in several 
anthologies (see LAGNIAPPE. ANTHOLOGIES); also in Chris Parker's B Flat, 
Bebop, Scat: Jazz Short Stories and Poems (Quartet Books, 1986), and Hayden 
Carruth's Sitting In (University of Iowa Press, 1993). Considerable rapport 
is required to integrate the reading of poetry and the performance of jazz.

Beware of books such as Jelly Roll (A Blues) by Kevin Young (Knopf, 2003), 
with its poetic jazz titles (Ragtime, Stride Piano, Riff, Swing, Gutbucket, 
Saxophone Solo, Boogie-Woogie). These and other poems turn out to be very 
blank verse with little, if any, connection with jazz, and none whatsoever 
with Jelly Roll. Perhaps in a mood of atonement, Mr. Young has apparently 
compiled some real Jazz Poems (Everyman's Library, 2006).

Emanuel, James. Jazz from the Haiku King. Detroit, Broadside Press, 1999. 
xv, 122, illus.

English is the basic language used in this amusing book but "Jazz in Six 
Tongues" reveals translations in French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, 
and Russian. According to the "Introduction", "The haiku form is very 
strict, five-seven-five syllables, usually written in three lines." It was 
originally a Japanese poetic variation, but has become universally popular. 
Almost half the book consists of haikus about jazz stars, among whom are 
Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious 
Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, and Charlie Parker. Other somewhat esoteric topics 
such as "Jazzactions, Jazznews, Jazz Chopsticks" and a series of "Blues" 
verses, followed by Notes on Translators, and About the Author, who is a 
university professor and poet with a Ph. D from Columbia University, 
complete this unusual volume. (Reproduction of the text is strictly 
forbidden, hence no haikus quoted)..

Another abbreviated verse form is the "Clerihew". Named after its inventor, 
Edmund Clerihew Bentley(1875-1956), an erudite English author. It is 
"usually biographical in nature and consists of two rhyming couplets. There 
are no restrictions concerning the length of the lines." These examples came 
to me after considerable cogitation:

Sammy Kaye

Had a band that could "Sway;"

But Goodman-style "Swing"

Wasn't his thing.

----------------------

When Louis played

"Sweethearts on Parade".

"You copycat,"said Carmen;

But friendly Guy said "Charmin'."

A collection of this form of "jazzy" humorous verse awaits an author.

Feinstein, Sascha. A Bibliographic Guide to Jazz Poetry. Westport, CT, 
Greenwood Press, 1998. xi, 230 pp., index.

"In addition to his general importance as a twentieth century poet, 
[Langston] Hughes may be considered the Father of Jazz Poetry, for his 
collection The Weary Blues (1926) was the first to emphasize the jazz and 
blues." The word "collection"is significant, because many jazz poems have 
appeared as a sparse contribution to magazines, journals, or jazz 
performances. This diffusion, as the author points out, was the main 
difficulty in compiling this bibliography. Nevertheless, he has managed to 
tabulate the 529 entries, alphabetically by author, with plentiful 
annotations. "While the subject of jazz is at the center of some poems, it 
acts only tangentially in others. In the Cross Reference Guide I have tried 
to distinguish the emphasis by adding 'mentioned' for a brief entry, or 
'named' for the appearance of a musician's name without commentary." The 
Cross Reference Guide is a 127-page alphabetical list of jazz musicians, 
each with his or her pertinent poems, followed by a 'Chronological Index of 
Poems Published Before 1970." The author also wrote Jazz Poetry: From the 
1920s to the Present (Greenwood Press, 1997), and was co-editor, with Yusef 
Komunyakaa, of The Jazz Poetry Anthology (Indiana University Press,1991) and 
its companion volume, The Second Set. The Jazz Poetry Anthology. Volume 2 
(Indiana University Press,1996). Four of the selections made by Feinstein 
are by Emanuel James, the above "Haikus" author. There are no "Clerihews".

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: <drjz at bealenet.com>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 9:26 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Jazz and Poetry


Not strictly OKOM, but some of the list, like Charlie Suhor, will certainly
get a kick of the below article. Interesting that on his first night in the
USA, after emigrating from Yugoslavia, Charles Simic (now poet laureate of
the US) went to the Metropole in NYC and saw Coleman Hawkins with Henry Red
Allen. (1954)

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


A Breezy Exchange Between Old Friends (Jazz and Poetry)

NY TIMES - By NATE CHINEN - January 10, 2008

³This is not an exercise in nostalgia, or giggling at the ¹50s,² the poet
Robert Pinsky said on taking the stage at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday
night. Along with his colleague Charles Simic, the current poet laureate of
the United States, Mr. Pinsky was taking part in a program billed as ³Words
and Music.² And his disclaimer doubled as a pledge. ³We hope the evening
will not be about goatees and berets,² Mr. Pinsky said, ³but about art.²

On that count the experiment in booking was a great success. Both
distinguished writers came to the club not only with an aura of literary
celebrity < Mr. Pinsky is a former United States poet laureate and no
stranger to the spotlight < but also a healthy regard for jazz.

Mr. Simic, who was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, recalled hearing Coleman
Hawkins with Red Allen at the Metropole Cafe on his first night in the
United States, in August 1954. (³So my American experience started out on a
high note,² he said.) For his part Mr. Pinsky described himself as a
frustrated saxophonist before reading his ³Ginza Samba,² which breathlessly
invokes both the inventor of the instrument and the ancestral legacy of the
Atlantic slave trade.

For that poem there was appropriate accompaniment: a samba, played by the
evening¹s resident trio of Mike Mainieri on vibraphone, Lonnie Plaxico on
bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums. Later Mr. Pinsky and Mr. Cyrille engaged
in a back-and-forth exchange of pithy couplets and improvised percussive
fills, and the premise, meant to suggest jazz¹s tradition of trading fours,
worked with breezy charm.

But these were the only instances of poetry coming into direct contact with
music, which meant there were some missed opportunities in the set. None was
more obvious than ³Crepuscule With Nellie,² Mr. Simic¹s moody reverie on the
subject of Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot. It could have easily been read
in concert with the Monk ballad that shares its name; instead Mr. Simic went
first, and the musicians followed (with ³ORound Midnight,² a different Monk
tune). It seemed at times as if the poets were so wary of Beat Generation
trappings that they closed off any chance of alchemy with the music.

Then again the title of the engagement promised a meeting, not a melding, of
practices. And in context, the format committed both poets to a sort of
cutting session. Mr. Simic used much of his stage time to hint at a bygone
New York bohemia, where jazz provided the soundtrack. He struck a sly and
sensuous note with three short pieces in a row, beginning with ³Unmade
Beds.² In another poem, ³Shelley,² he conjured an image of shadowy solitude
along rainy city streets. (Mr. Mainieri could have amplified this feeling.)

Mr. Pinsky read several striking recent poems, including ³Samurai Song² and
³Antique,² studies in tension and opposition. He also touched upon his
acclaimed translations of Dante Alighieri. And with ³The Green Piano² he
filtered personal history through the language of rhapsody. Though no
exercise in nostalgia, it harnessed the power of memory. And it echoed an
earlier observation by Mr. Pinsky: that jazz and poetry are ³two profound
arts that have to do profoundly with time.²


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