“Tell a Story: Mitchell and Ruff’s Army Service” – an essay by Dale Davis

The author writes about how Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff’s U.S. Army service helped them learn to understand the fusion of different musical influences that tell the story of jazz.

The Sunday Poem: “A Poem in Search of a Title” – by Terrance Underwood

Flute fragrant & pointing the way with his instrument in 1967
Herbie Mann arrives to a Village
in a sidecar
emerging from a maze of passageways with the Wailing Dervishes
steering them to the Medina
a clustered market of ancient sound

Jazz History Quiz #183

Long admired by the likes of Tom Waits (pictured), John Mayall, and the Rolling Stones, and having had his songs recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Leon Russell, and The Who, this pianist/vocalist has long suffered from a “category” problem, once even saying; “There’s a lot of places I don’t work because they’re confused about what I do.” Who is he?

Memories of live performances in poems by Tim Maloney, Bradford Middleton and T.W. Parrish

in the nosebleed seats
of the Palais de Chaillot in Paris
long past the announced start time
fans from France, UK, US,
Germany, Scandinavia, and beyond
debate in surprisingly good English

“Trucks and Tanks” – a short story by Howard Mandel

The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest – is about the incursion of military units into a placid residential American neighborhood.

The Sunday Poem: “Solo” by Rob Yedinak

Hear this sonic siege,
improvised vibrations sent
soaring through veins and
shivers as if a rift in a junkie’s
jubilee.

“Jazz Child” – a poem and a personal remembrance of Sheila Jordan, by Namaya

Jazz child
you lift us up
inspire us to
believe

holding to the
higher power
the music of
jazz and love.

“Still Wild” – a collection of poems by Connie Johnson

Connie Johnson’s unique and warm vernacular is the framework in which she reminds readers of the foremost contributors of jazz music, while peeling back the layers on the lesser known and of those who find themselves engaged by it, and affected by it.  I have proudly published Connie’s poems for over two years and felt the consistency and excellence of her work deserved this 15 poem showcase.

Memorable Quotes: Albert Einstein, on labor

“Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must…”

“Sensual Autumn” – a poem (for September) by Jerrice J. Baptiste

Under flaming
hickory trees,
abundance of acorns thump.

Our bodies lean
gently on trunk.
Hands rest on wise thick body

The Sunday Poem: “The All-Seeing Eye” by Martin Durkin

The ubiquitous eye of
God

Cloud jumping
island hopping
crossing rivers

or
separating them?

From the Interview Archive: Ornette Coleman biographer Maria Golia

In this April, 2020 interview, Ms. Golia discusses her book and the artist whose philosophy and the astounding, adventurous music he created served to continually challenge the skeptical status quo, and made him a guiding light of the artistic avant-garde throughout a career spanning seven decades.

“Stormy Weather” – a poem by Michael L. Newell

Rain’s tympani creates a cadence
of drummers transforming my roof
into a concert hall. My windows
are awash with rivers of tears. A cat

“Strange Fruit” – a short story by Stephen Jackson

The story – a short-listed entry in the 69th Short Fiction Contest – explores the transformative power of authentic art through the eyes of a young white busboy from Mississippi who witnesses Billie Holiday’s historic first performance of “Strange Fruit” at Café Society in 1939.

The Sunday Poem: “The Artists of Dutch Alley” – by Robert Alan Felt

Man, this Quarter sure does sizzle:
in the silky Delta night a gigantic palette burst,
friendly toot of brass, sweet birdsong of reed,
one-up duels of rock guitars, funky zydeco mix,

21 jazz poems on the 21st of August, 2025

An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features several poems on John Coltrane and Billie Holiday, as well as nods to Bill Evans, Chet Baker, Archie Shepp and others…

“Odes & Invocations: An Evening with Artemis” – by david eugene everard

A review of a Victoria, B.C. standing room only performance by Artemis – the all-women jazz ensemble that Downbeat readers have cited as the Best Jazz Group for the last two years – that “felt like an ode to mother nature.”

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 15: High Spirits-Dark Laughter-Absurdity

A substantial number of novels and stories with jazz music as a component of the story have been published over the years, and the scholar David J. Rife has written short essay/reviews of them. In this 14th edition featuring excerpts from his outstanding literary resource, Rife writes about stories whose themes include High Spirits, Dark Laughter, and Absurdity

The Sunday Poem: “Down in the Attic” by Kristofer Collins

I go to the basement for the splendor
of bare dirt floor finally someone has
made order of the mess and I don’t believe
I prefer it here I can be alone with thousands

“Two Jazz Survivors” – a true jazz story by Bob Hecht

A remembrance of a personal friendship with the late Sheila Jordan, one of the most unique vocalists in jazz history.

“Portrait of Sheila Jordan” – a poem by George Kalamaras

Green tea tonight
And the smooth of your voice
Sheila
Bird was right
You could catch the perfect pitch
For me

Short Fiction Contest-winning story #69 – “My Vertical Landscape,” by Felicia A. Rivers

Touched by the stories of the Philadelphia jazz clubs of the 1960s, a graffiti artist transforms an ugly wall into something beautiful – meaningful, even.

The Sunday Poem: “Ambassador” by DH Jenkins

Coltrane was one of the first Americans
to visit Nagasaki
in a way to commiserate shared
International Pain, mixed with shame.

“Blind Willie Johnson Leaves the Solar System,” by Henry Blanke

An appreciation for Blind Willie Johnson, whose landmark 1927 – 1930 recordings influenced generations of musicians, and whose song, “Dark is the Night, Cold is the Ground,” was included on the album sent into space in 1977 as a way for extraterrestrial beings to glean something important about human culture and life on Earth.

“A Compendium for Malcolm-Jamal Warner,” by Christopher D. Sims

I hear Langston in
Your voice, brother,
Your choice to challenge
Systems of restraint, opposition,
shackles. Langston would have
been proud as you belted loud
the conditions of our people.

Memorable Quotes: Bertrand Russell, on facts

“Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through…”

“Escalator Over the Hill – Then and Now” – by Joel Lewis

Remembering the essential 1971 album by Carla Bley/Paul Haines, inspired by the writer’s experience attending the New School’s recent performance of it

The Sunday Poem: “Nellie Mae Rowe: Of My Hand” by Connie Johnson

outsider iconography / intentional complexity
what she creates is not done privately
she demands visibility

“August Blues” – a poem (for August) by Jerrice J. Baptiste

Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 12-month 2025 calendar of jazz poetry winds through the year with her poetic grace while inviting us to wander through music by the likes of Charlie Parker, Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughan,  Melody Gardot and Nina Simone. She welcomes August with a solemn poem punctuated by the bass of Stefan Redtenbacher.

“Radio Nights” – a prose poem by DB Jonas

They’d hired him on the spot, after a few brief questions. Questions that seemed strange to him now, but which the state of his nerves that afternoon had made it impossible to focus on at the time. Like, “ Do you own a car?”

The Sunday Poem: "Scene Poems in Ingrid Laubrock’s Dreamt Twice, Twice Dreamt", by Sean Howard

the pencil clouds
the page (to follow the
shadow’s glissando graffiti):
thronged streets – before the
lockdown? – so many un-
befriended dreams… all
these years, scared to
open silence’s note-
book

Jazz History Quiz #182

He is best known for writing “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66” — which Nat Cole (pictured) made famous in 1946 — but his earliest musical success came with the song “Daddy,” recorded in 1941 by Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra, which was the #1 record for eight weeks. He was also famous for being married to the glamorous singer Julie London. Who is he?

Three poems by Francis Fernandes

It’s the little things that keep me awake at night. No, not bubbles in a glass of champagne. I mean those microscopic creatures you see on posters hanging on immunologists’ walls.

21 jazz poems on the 21st of July, 2025

An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to  Jerry Jazz Musician.  This edition features a handful poets new to this publication, and in addition to a general reverence for the music, readers will find poems on the likes of Monk, Lester Young, Miles, and Oscar Peterson.

The Sunday Poem: “Jayne Cortez Meets Thelonious Monk One Night and Decides to Revise Her Life” by George Kalamaras

Maybe it happened this way. Jayne Cortez
sitting at the Five Spot, scribbling in her notebook.

War. Remembrance. Walls. The High Price of Authoritarianism – by editor/publisher Joe Maita

An essay inspired by my recent experiences witnessing the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation of several World War II concentration camps in Germany.

“With Ease in Mind” – poems by Terrance Underwood

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Terrance Underwood’s poetry.  I am also quite jealous of his ease with words, and of his graceful way of living, which shows up in this collection of 12 poems.

“Dear Nina” – a poem by Jerrice J. Baptiste

I first heard your voice singing in my dormitory room. My roommate Sheila played your song I Want Some Sugar in My Bowl. She showed me the albums that proved your deep voice was female…

Interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers

The collection of 14 interviews is an impressive and determined effort, one that contributes mightily to the deepening of our understanding for the music’s past impact, and fans optimism for more.

The Sunday Poem: “The Subtle Art of Dinner Music” by Fred Shaw

Even as another purpled sunset curtains
this bistro’s leaded windows, letting
dinner talk turn to hush while we pour
red wine with a burble, none of us can recall
when our glass-eyed piano man became
the lucky piece we fist bump at the threshold.

“Ahmad Jamal’s Piano Comes Home” – a poem by Robert Gibb

Some assembly required,
It might have said on that
Half-ton worth of furniture
Dollied from the back

Monk, as seen by Gottlieb, Dorsett and 16 poets – an ekphrastic poetry collection

Poets write about Thelonious Monk – inspired by William Gottlieb’s photograph and Rhonda R. Dorsett’s artistic impression of it.

“Is Jazz God?” – an essay by Allison Songbird

A personal journey leads to the discovery of the importance of jazz music, and finding love for it later in life.

The Sunday Poem: “4tet at Fiesta” by Catherine Lee

sound
to a place
where tomorrow
is too
am
arrow
like
pain
from
brain chatter

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 25: “How I Hear Music: ‘Feel the Sway,’ A Song in Three Movements”

In this edition, due to a current and ongoing obsession with drummer Matt Wilson’s 2006 album The Scenic Route, Douglas Cole writes another poem in response to his experience listening to the track “Feel the Sway.”

“Thinking of Mr. Davis on the Fourth of July” – a poem by Juan Mobili

t was Miles who taught me
that so what was a declaration
of independence from your mind
when it seduces you
to wish you were like everyone else,

“J.A. Rogers’ ‘Jazz at Home’: A Centennial Reflection on Jazz Representation Through the Lens of Stormy Weather and Everyday Life – an essay by Jasmine M. Taylor

The writer opines that jazz continues to survive – 100 years after J.A. Rogers’ own essay that highlighted the artistic freedom of jazz – and has “become a fundamental core in American culture and modern Americanism; not solely because of its artistic craftsmanship, but because of the spirit that jazz music embodies.”

The passing of a poet: Alan Yount

Alan Yount, the Missouri native whose poems were published frequently on Jerry Jazz Musician, has passed away at the age of 77.

What is This Path – a collection of poems by Michael L. Newell

A contributor of significance to Jerry Jazz Musician, the poet Michael L. Newell shares poems he has written since being diagnosed with a concerning illness.

“Every Night at Ten,” a short story by Dennis A. Blackledge

Smothering parents, heavy-handed school officials, and a dead President conspire to keep a close-knit group of smalltown junior high kids from breaking loose. But the discovery of a song on late-night radio — one supposedly loaded with dirty words — changes everything.

The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Art Farmer and Benny Golson

Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition features the May 10, 1996 photos of the tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger Benny Golson, and the February 13, 1997 photos of trumpet and flugelhorn player Art Farmer.

“Albert Ayler; Flying Home” – a poem by Stephen C. Middleton

At the Fondation, where he fell in love with Chagall.
In St Paul, where that painter lived
(And Albert played al fresco)
And in interview with Daniel Caux
He seemed positive

Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong

The author discusses the third volume of his trilogy, which includes the formation of the Armstrong-led ensembles known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven that modernized music, the way artists play it, and how audiences interact with it and respond to it.

Community Bookshelf #4

“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (September, 2024 – March, 2025)

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher

A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”