Poems on Charlie “Bird” Parker (inspired by a painting by Al Summ) – an ekphrastic poetry collection
A collection of 26 poems inspired by the painting of Charlie Parker by the artist Al Summ.
...Search Results for: poetry collections
Calling All Poets…Submissions guidelines for the anthology “Black History in Poetry”
We are currently seeking poetry from writers of all backgrounds for Black History in Poetry, an anthology scheduled for publication in the Summer of 2026. The anthology will be a means of celebrating and honoring notable Black Americans by offering poetry that teems with imagery, observation, emotion, memory, testimony, insight, impact, and humanity. Our aim is to give readers a way to visualize Black history from a fresh perspective.
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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.
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“Motorcitysixty” – a poetry competition
News of an interesting poetry competition framed around the upcoming 60th anniversary of the 1965 Motown Revue arriving in the United Kingdom. The competition invites writers to tell their own Motor City stories in poetry.
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Announcing the book publication of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry
The first Jerry Jazz Musician poetry anthology published in book form includes 90 poems by 47 poets from all over the world, and features the brilliant artwork of Marsha Hammel and a foreword by Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator David Amram. The collection is “interactive” (and quite unique) because it invites readers – through the use of QR codes printed on many of the book’s pages – to link to selected readings by the poets themselves, as well as to historic audio and video recordings (via YouTube) relevant to many of the poems, offering a holistic experience with the culture of jazz.
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Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 2025 Jazz Poetry Calendar
Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 12-month 2025 calendar of jazz poetry winds through the upcoming year with her poetic grace while inviting us to wander through music by the likes of Hoagy Carmichael, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughan, Melody Gardot and Charlie Parker.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring/Summer, 2024 Edition
In this, the 17th major collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician, 50 poets from all over the world again demonstrate the ongoing influence the music and its associated culture has on their creative lives.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2024 Edition
One-third of the Winter, 2024 collection of jazz poetry is made up of poets who have only come to my attention since the publication of the Summer, 2023 collection. What this says about jazz music and jazz poetry – and this community – is that the connection between the two art forms is inspirational and enduring, and that poets are finding a place for their voice within these virtual pages.
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A brief collection of poetry devoted to jazz…and love
Seven poets combine and art of jazz with an act of love…
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In a Place of Dreams: Connie Johnson’s album of jazz poetry, music, and life stories
A collection of Connie Johnson’s poetry is woven among her audio readings, a personal narrative of her journey and music she considers significant to it, providing readers the chance to experience the full value of her gifts.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2023 Edition
This edition features poetry chosen from hundreds of recent submissions, and from a wide range of voices known – and unknown – to readers of these collections. The work is unified by the poets’ ability to capture the abundance of jazz music, and their experience with consuming it.
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A Charlie Parker poetry collection
Nine poets, nine poems on the leading figure in the development of bebop…
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring, 2023 Edition
This is the 14th extensive collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician since the fall of 2019, when the concept was initiated. Like all previous volumes, the beauty of this edition is not solely evident in the general excellence of the published works; it also rests in the hearts of the individuals from diverse backgrounds who possess a mutual desire to reveal their life experiences and interactions with the music, its character, and its culture.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition
.This collection of jazz poetry – the largest yet assembled on Jerry Jazz Musician – demonstrates how poets who are also listeners of jazz music experience and interact with the spontaneous art that arises from jazz improvisation, which often shows up in the soul and rhythm of their poetic language.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2022 Edition
A broad collection of jazz poetry authored by an impressive assemblage of regular contributors and established poets new to this publication – all of whom open their imagination and hearts to the abundant creative experience they derive from this art.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring, 2022 Edition
Over 60 poets from all over the world celebrate their love of jazz…in poetry.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2021-22 Edition
Molly Larson Cook’s abstract-expressionist paintings accompany the 50 poets contributing to this collection. Her art has much in common with the poetry and music found within it; all three art forms can be described as “landscapes of the imagination,” created by artists from all over the world who are inspired in a meaningful way by jazz music, and whose work can be uniquely interpreted and appreciated (or not!) by those who consume it.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2021 Edition
“It’s not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz.”
-Herbie Hancock
.
And…this spirit is not limited to the musicians, because celebrating jazz is rich in creative opportunity for writers and visual artists as well. The 54 poets who contribute to this poetry collection are living proof of that.
As always, thanks to the poets, and I hope you enjoy…
Joe
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A Poetry Collection — inspired by Miles Davis
Few artists inspire creativity like Miles Davis. This collection of poetry by 50 poets from all over the world is evidence of that.
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“Under Quarantine” — COVID era poetry of Erren Kelly
A collection of the poet Erren Kelly’s unconstrained, improvisational and provocative poetry written during the era of COVID
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2021 Edition
In this winter collection of diverse themes and poetic styles, 55 poets wander the musical landscape to explore their spirit and enthusiasm for jazz music, its historic figures, and the passion, sadness, humor and joy it arouses.
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Poetry in the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season, Vol. 5
In this fifth collection of poetry reflecting these times, 33 poets offer their perspectives…
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Autumn, 2020 Edition
Jazz and poetry have always had a symbiotic relationship. Their creative languages share the common soil of imagination and improvisation, from which their audiences discover inspiration and spirit, and perhaps even a renewed faith in life itself.
This collection features 50 gifted poets from places as disparate as Ohio and Nepal, Estonia and Boston, Guyana and Pittsburgh, each publicly sharing their inner world reverence for the culture of jazz music.
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Poetry reflecting the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season — Vol. 4
On the cusp of an election of consequence the likes of which America hasn’t experienced for 150 years, and in the midst of continued Black Lives Matter protests and an indisputable surge of COVID, 29 poets sharing perspectives from all over the world contribute to this volume of poetry reflecting our tumultuous, unsettling era…
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Poetry reflecting the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season — Vol. 3
An invitation was extended recently to poets to submit work that reflects this time of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season. In this third volume, 33 poets contribute…
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2020 Edition
. . “Clifford Brown” is a painting by Warren Goodson, a Saxapahaw, North Carolina artist whose work is driven by his appreciation for Black culture. With his gracious consent, Mr. Goodson’s art is featured throughout this collection. . . _____ . . “Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.” -Lawrence Ferlinghetti … Continue reading “A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2020 Edition”
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Poetry reflecting the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season — Vol. 2
23 poets contribute 26 poems that speak to the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season
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Poetry by Jerrice Baptiste and Moe Seager
. . photo by Tengilorg / CC BY . . While Playing A Vinyl Record Music lightens blue mood. It softens mind like feather floating towards earth, then brushes against cheek, chin and ear. Body sways with Jazz in air. A tickle on skin, sensations cradled in ears, harvesting goodness like wheat to enjoy … Continue reading “Poetry by Jerrice Baptiste and Moe Seager”
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring, 2020 Edition
33 poets from all over the globe contribute 47 poems. Expect to read of love, loss, memoir, worship, freedom, heartbreak and hope – all collected here, in the heart of this unsettling spring.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2020 Edition
The winter collection of poetry offers readers a look at the culture of jazz music through the imaginative writings of its 32 contributors. Within these 41 poems, writers express their deep connection to the music – and those who play it – in their own inventive and often philosophical language that communicates much, but especially love, sentiment, struggle, loss, and joy.
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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall, 2019 Edition
Twenty-eight poets contribute 37 poems to the Jerry Jazz Musician Fall Poetry Collection, living proof that the energy and spirit of jazz is alive — and quite well.
(Featuring the art of Russell Dupont)
.
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A collection of jazz poetry — June, 2019 edition
In this month’s collection, with great jazz artists at the core of their work, 16 poets remember, revere, ponder, laugh, dream, and listen
...A collection of poetry celebrating the culture of jazz — January, 2019
. . In this collection, nine poets contribute ten poems celebrating jazz in poems as unique as the music itself . . . . I Am Jazz . I Am Jazz. It is my nature to evolve, to change and adapt. I’m restless. I move towards a future I cannot see or predict. … Continue reading “A collection of poetry celebrating the culture of jazz — January, 2019”
...Thankful…for poetry (and poets)
So many great poetry submissions of late, for which I am incredibly thankful. The spirit within every poem received — whether published or not — is evident and cheered and appreciated.
Here are three recent arrivals…
Happy Thanksgiving, peace and blessings to all.
_____
The Keyboard Player
by Robert Nisbet
Daily, he worked from nine o’clock till five.
His life and family and things were fine.
For some the moment, the anticipatory one,
...A collection of poetry celebrating love and jazz
In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, I recently invited many of our contributing poets to submit work that combines the themes of jazz music and love, with the result being a collection of voices expressing their own contributions to the language of love…
Dozens of writers submitted over 100 poems, and the best of the submissions — 29 poems by 18 poets — are found on the following 12 pages. Advance through the selections by utilizing the page monitor at the bottom of each page.
Many thanks to everyone who submitted their work.
JJM
...Poetry by Michael Salcman
THE PENCIL OF NATURE
Imagine Talbot walking into a museum today-
how his eyes would pop at a toy fork
stuck in a cardboard refrigerator
or a towering hotel lobby,
its plaza digitally erased of people
and its colors pumped up
Poetry by Tim Greenwood
THE BUNKER
An overgrown trail is abruptly halted by a set of rusting metal gates,
Secured to a crooked post by a battered padlock and feeble chain.
A grey guard tower lies out of sight, studying the unfolding scene intently,
From the dense undergrowth where fresh raindrops glisten in the new-born sunlight.
Calling All Poets…
A call-out for submissions for upcoming poetry collections to be published on Jerry Jazz Musician
...Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 27: “California Suite”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is dedicated to saxophone players and the mood scenes that instrument creates.
...In Memoriam: “Color Wheels” – a poem (for Jack DeJohnette) by Mary K O’Melveny
He painted what he heard in his head
his heart ..his limitless .. timeless soul
each stage an art studio
As if Rothko or Gerhard Richter or Monet
were letting us in on their secrets
warming us as we watched
21 jazz poems on the 21st of October, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems inspired by the late Chuck Mangione, several on other trumpeters, the blues, and nods to Monk, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.
...Community Bookshelf #5
.“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 (March, 2025 – September, 2025)
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 26: “Bougainvillea Sutra”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. In this edition, his inspiration comes from the guitarist John Scofield’s 2013 EmArcy album Uberjam Deux, and specifically the track titled “Scotown.”
...“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.
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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.
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The Sunday Poem: “Nights of Cool Struttin'” by Connie Johnson
& I only know how to do it
with Sonny Clark in my ear
classic jazz iconography
shrouded in mystery
Where I’ve Been…and a brief three-dot-update
. . Mr. Albrecht Weinberg, a survivor of Nazi atrocities, and a portion of those assembled to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Mittlebau/Dora concentration camp. Nordhausen, Germany, April 7, 2025. . ___ . Where I’ve Been…In late March, my companion Rhonda and I embarked on a glorious two-month journey of Germany … Continue reading “Where I’ve Been…and a brief three-dot-update”
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21 jazz poems on the 21st of May, 2025
. . An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. Thanks to the poets…and enjoy! . . ___ . . “Diz with Bird” by Martel Chapman . ___ . Life is Jazz Life is jazz, always improvisational. Groovin’ and swingin’, low down and funky, stately … Continue reading “21 jazz poems on the 21st of May, 2025”
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The Sunday Poem: “Listening to Life’s Sound Tracks With Terence Oliver Blanchard” by Mary K O’Melveny
Let’s celebrate that Contemporary Cat
and his celestial trumpet! Each day his
musical genius vibrates, accelerates, elevates.
Raised by his dad to listen to opera. Played
piano and trumpet at eight years old.
Calling all Poets…an invitation to submit your work
I invite you to take note of three opportunities for having your work published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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The Sunday Poem: “You Know by the Laughter” by Joan E. Bauer
Billy Wilder loved voice-over & the velocity
it gives a script. He loved to jump ahead trusting
the audience to stay with him. What’s more,
the satirist in him liked to comment.
21 jazz poems on the 21st of March, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician.
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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)
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 23: “The Wave”
In this edition, Douglas’ poem is written partly as a reference to the Antonio Carlos Jobin song “Wave,” but mostly to get in the famed Japanese artist Hokusai’s idea of the wave as being a huge, threatening thing. (The poem initially sprang from listening to Cal Tjader’s “Along Came Mary”).
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Winter 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Winter, 2025 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Announcing the book publication of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry Dear Readers: For several years I have published major jazz poetry collections that were solely available on the Jerry Jazz … Continue reading “Winter 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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The Sunday Poem: “Jazz Improv” by Michael Keshigian
I am the sound,
the spontaneous voice you hear
beyond the melodic trance,
an array of multi-timbred,
fragmented, impetuous harmonies and rhythms
to carry you into an alternate dimension,
Fall 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Fall, 2024 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Jazz Poetry…Collected! With a major collection of jazz poetry soon to be published in book form, this edition of Jerry Jazz Musician features poets from all over the world whose work … Continue reading “Fall 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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Community Bookshelf #3
“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 (March – September, 2024)
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The Sunday Poem: “Spinning Black Platters” by Mike Jurkovic
During a brief respite from the hard rain,
I heard a music born of spring and sunsets
coming from spinning black platters.
Their weighty cadence, their spry
crackling fireworks
Spring/Summer 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Spring/Summer, 2024 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring/Summer 2024 Edition In this, the 17th major collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician, 50 poets from all over the world again demonstrate the ongoing influence … Continue reading “Spring/Summer 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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On turning 70, and contemplating the future of Jerry Jazz Musician
Embracing a new stage in life, and where I hope to go next with Jerry Jazz Musician
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The Sunday Poem(s): 23 Poets remember their father…
. . This space on Sunday is generally reserved for a single poet to read one of their works, but this week’s issue -Father’s Day – features 23 poets who weigh in on the complexity of their relationship with their father, revealing love, warmth, regret, sorrow – and in many cases a strong connection … Continue reading “The Sunday Poem(s): 23 Poets remember their father…”
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The Sunday Poem: “The Lady Sings” by Michael Keshigian
He often remembered
how it used to be with her,
his former lover,
who would sing him a song
every night before bed
then teach him each line
Calling all poets!
News about a Jerry Jazz Musician printed jazz poetry anthology, and information about submitting your poetry for consideration
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“Burial” – a short story by Peter J. Dellolio
A short-listed entry in the recently concluded 65th Short Fiction Contest concerns a child’s courage in the face of abuse, displayed in her solemn ritual of burying her stuffed toys.
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The Sunday Poem: “A Mountain Pass (In memory of Joe Pass)” by Bhuwan Thapaliya
A woman sits in a window frame
of old carved birds, listening to her
grandson in his jeans playing fig leaf music
in her home in Koshidekha,
a village in Nepal.
Community Bookshelf #2
“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share information about their recently authored books.
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“Black Coffee Blues” – a poem by Mary K O’Melveny
Even if you never drank black coffee, that won’t stop you from drinking in the feelings that filter across a room whenever Sarah Vaughan sings Black Coffee. One could drown in that bottomless, inky liquid, that heartache-laden brew,
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Three poets and Sketches of Spain
I’ve never seen much of Spain.
A business trip to Barcelona.
A commuter ride to Girona. Salvador
Dali’s museum. A stop in Sitges
where ivory beach sand abets
a shimmered turquoise sea.
Fall/Winter 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Winter, 2024 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2024 Edition While earlier editions of jazz poetry collections have included many voices previously unknown to readers of these anthologies, what is striking about … Continue reading “Fall/Winter 2024 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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The Sunday Poem: “Lady Day” by Millicent Borges Accardi
Her first note wails amber
smoke near overhead pipes above
the guitars. It wavers
and rolls r’s better than spring.
Summer 2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Summer, 2023 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2023 Edition This edition features poetry chosen from hundreds of recent submissions, and from a wide range of voices known – and unknown … Continue reading “Summer 2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
...Spring 2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Spring, 2023 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring, 2023 Edition This is the 14th extensive collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician since the fall of 2019, when the concept was initiated. … Continue reading “Spring 2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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The international flavor of jazz…in five poems
Poets honor jazz as an international music in five atmospheric poems
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“Why We Write” – a conversation with three Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writers
Writers talk about influential life experiences with writing, literary figures who inspired their work, overcoming creative and economic challenges, and where they fit in today’s publishing model.
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A collection of short jazz poems – Vol. 1
A collection in which over 30 poets communicate their appreciation for jazz music in poems no longer than seven lines.
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The Sunday Poem: “If I Were A Monarch Butterfly” – by Mary K. O’Melveny
The poet imagines being a monarch butterfly, inspired to movement by the music of Django Reinhardt
...Winter 2022/2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Winter 2022/23 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition While poetry may never again be a major part of popular American culture, it can still effectively impact a subset of … Continue reading “Winter 2022/2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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A message…and an appeal
An appeal for contributions to support the ongoing publishing efforts of Jerry Jazz Musician
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“Face Value” — a short story by Rebecca Givens Rolland
A story about two American musicians in Paris for the summer–both of whom are on the brink of a breakdown.
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“Kind of Blue” — a poem by Kathleen S. Burgess
Spring rains watercolor the earth leaf, daffodil, violet,
then soften to a blue-gray mist,
and clear. Day’s begun transitioning, sky-bright blue to
lapis lazuli. Moon dreams in the north.
“The Rumproller” — a poem by Kristofer Collins
There is a great banging coming from inside the brewery
while out here in the sun my blood knocks at the blue
ceilings of my veins like an irate tenant in the apartment
one floor down unprepared for that first blast of Lee
Morgan’s trumpet
Winter 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter — Winter, 2020 Information about new content published on Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2020 Edition ….The winter collection of poetry offers readers a look at the culture of jazz music through the imaginative writings of its 32 contributors. Within these 41 poems, … Continue reading “Winter 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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“Ida” — a poem by Kristofer Collins
I remember a Polish jazz combo I once saw in a movie
about Jews and nuns and suicide. It was after the war
and the band played in basement clubs –
Poems by D.R. James, John Stupp and Alan Yount
My striking wife
is the cat’s strut—
cello sass
with a syncopated
escalator to
move
“Everyone Talks During the Bass Solo” – a poem by D.R. James
It sounded like, “Che ate Pat’s grandma”!
And I’m like…. Before I forget, the “Check Engine”
21 jazz poems on the 21st of November, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems communicating the emotional appeal of jazz music, as well as nods to the likes of Miles Davis, Regina Carter, Maynard Ferguson, Ornette Coleman, and Max Roach,
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The Sunday Poem: “hush for the sax” by j.lewis
hush.
listen to the melody
the undulating voice of pain
too wide for hands to hold
too deep for hell’s own shadows
to mute, to resist
A dispatch from Portland, 2025 – and Boston, 1969
Peaceful protest is nothing new to America. It is happening every day in Portland, where I live. It is what makes our country great. And those of us who grew up in the 1960’s probably have a history of protest – some turning violent – ourselves. The poet Russell Dupont shares text and photos from his experience while photographing the October, 1969 March against the war in Boston, when plainclothes Federal officers attempted to confiscate his camera.
...Jimi Hendrix – in four poems
Purple Haze
was in our brains
all that summer of 68
while Jimi sang,
his hair a dark nimbus
against the shifting lights
The Sunday Poem: “Jazz: A Partial Definition” by Laura Trigg
It’s a stew of New Orleans, Kansas City, Memphis,
St. Louis, and the little river towns in between.
There’s a peppering of marching bands, swing,
call and response, and gospel, with a mix of Latin
and Afro-Cuban flavors. Salt has been rubbed into
“Lester Young Cools a Village” – an essay by Henry Blanke
On the origins of cool, and the influence (and greatness) of Lester Young.
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21 jazz poems on the 21st of September, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features several poems on the blues, a nod to West Coast Jazz, as well as reverence for the likes of Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, and Pat Metheny.
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The Sunday Poem: “Thelonious Sphere Monk” by Russell Dupont
“What’s in a name?”
she asked,
the first
four syllables
slipping off
her tongue,
“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.
...Summer 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Summer, 2025 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Monk, as seen by Gottlieb, Dorsett and 16 poets – an ekphrastic poetry collection Dear Readers: …..I recently invited interested poets to take part in an ekphrastic poem exercise that involved … Continue reading “Summer 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter”
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“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
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
?
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.
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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.
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.”
...“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.”
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21 jazz poems on the 21st of June, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician.
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The Sunday Poem: “Licorice Stick” by Russell Dupont
My parents had this big Crosley
and a stack of albums —
Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers —
and some nights I’d get up from bed
and peek into the living room
where my mother and father
slowly waltzed in place.
Memorable Quotes: Louis Brandeis…on lawbreaking government
“Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker…”
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“Stuck in the Groove” – a short story by David Rudd
The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 68th Short Fiction Contest – is about a saxophonist who moves away from playing bebop to experimenting with free jazz, discovering its liberating potential and possible pitfalls along the way…
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 24: “Change of Luck”
I had an old car
with a fender rusted out
on the back left side
and it was just another spot
of decay and breakdown
on that old machine
21 jazz poems on the 21st of April, 2025
An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician.
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“Phasis” – a poem by Russell Dupont
Day six
and the dissonance
of my pneumonia
has become as percussive
as Cecil Taylor’s piano.
Spring 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician – Spring, 2025 Newsletter Information about new content published on the website Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong It’s safe to assume we can agree that Louis Armstrong deserved this – a comprehensive biography (now … Continue reading “Spring 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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Jazz History Quiz #180
Upon leaving Charlie Barnet’s orchestra in 1941, this trumpeter wanted to start his own group, and, with the help of publicist/journalist Leonard Feather, became the first white leader in jazz history to organize an all-black group. Who was he?
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The Sunday Poem: “The Sound of Surprise” by Dan Thompson
Look at that dude!
BEEP!
Look at his horn!
BOP!
Look at those cheeks!
Salt Peanuts!
POP!
“Charlie Parker in End of Winter” – a poem (for March) by Jerrice J. Baptiste
March winds swirl.
Frozen is the pond
where children skate.
In New York we wrap
our toes in pure white
wool blankets.
Interview with Phillip Freeman, author of In the Brewing Luminous: The Life and Music of Cecil Taylor
Philip Freeman discusses Cecil Taylor – the most eminent free jazz musician of his era, whose music marked the farthest boundary of avant-garde jazz.
...The Sunday Poem: “Jazz Riven” by Michael Baldwin
Derelict dark and smoke ghosts
coagulate expectancy
among struggling silences.
Dumb dark sucks glances
of silver and gold
from yet mute metal.
A Black History Month Profile: An Interview with Judith Tick, author of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
Judith Tick, author of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song, talks about the singer who “changed the trajectory of American vocal jazz in this century.” Ms. Tick. who is professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University, discusses Ella – and her book – in this wide-ranging October 23, 2023 interview.
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The Sunday Poem: “Don’t Worry About the Labels” by Mike Mignano
. . © Marsha Hammel . . Don’t Worry About the Labels Quintessentially American Scores of differing mood Even named by temperature Hot and cool include Categories unmemorizable Don’t worry about the labels On your listening journey “Giant Steps” “Slow Freight” “Big Train” May take Endless destinations This sprawling Jazz landscape . Listen to … Continue reading “The Sunday Poem: “Don’t Worry About the Labels” by Mike Mignano”
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Jazz History Quiz #177
This saxophonist’s first important jobs were during the 1940’s with Lionel Hampton (pictured), Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong’s big band, and Billy Eckstine’s Orchestra. Additionally, he was a Savoy Records recording artist as a leader before being an important part of the scene on Los Angeles’ Central Avenue. Who was he?
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 22: “Energy Man, or, God is in the House”
Art Tatum plays fast
fast as Sundays
fast as sunset in November
fast as a hurry up offense
fast as a 20 dollar bill flying down the street
The Sunday Poem: “He Jazzed His Way” by Susie Gharib
He jazzed his way into my heart
with pulsing beats that have surpassed
the resounding rhythm of the jungle drums.
Jazz History Quiz #176
While legendary as a saxophonist, his first instrument was a violin and his second the piano — which he played well enough to work as an accompanist to silent movies. Ultimately it was Lester Young’s father who taught him the saxophone well enough that he switched instruments for good. (It was during this time that he also saved Lester from drowning in a river). Who is he?
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Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 6: “Mystery, Mayhem, Music”
In this edition, Rife writes about jazz novels and short stories that feature a theme of “mystery.”
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Jazz History Quiz #175
This famed jazz artist played the piano professionally as a seventh grader before switching to drums, learning to play in the styles of Chick Webb and Sid Catlett. Before forming his own band in the early 1950’s, he played with Mary Lou Williams (pictured) in New York, toured the South with Fletcher Henderson’s band, and was the drummer in Billy Eckstine’s group from 1944 – 1947. Who is he?
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The Sunday Poem: “Down Jazz” by Holly Peppe
Prisms resound, glow dissonant—
refracted word-dyes salvaged from malaise.
A bleeding swatch of rainbow,
cordless stains on muslin,
stacks of frightened tightropes,
my slippers thin and worn –
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 21: “The Blue Truth”
This edition of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film is written in response to Oliver Nelson’s 1961 recording The Blues and the Abstract Truth
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The Sunday Poem: “somewhere near the major-minor seventh” by j. lewis
cohen says there are major falls
and minor lifts that come before
the fourths and fifths and i suppose
he’s probably right, most likely right
but this is not about some hallelujah
The Sunday Poem: “Weary Blues” by David Rudd
Woke up this morning to the Bugle Call Rag,
Straight no chasers made my head real bad.
Nothing left for breakfast … goodbye pork pie hat,
Dressed with chilies (ah um) – never hotter than that!
Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 4: “Jazz, Dancing, Nightclubs: A Bonded Culture”
In this fourth edition featuring excerpts from his book, Rife writes about five novels/short fiction that include stories about the interconnected cultures of jazz, dancing and nightclubs.
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“Adrian Rollini Lives” – an appreciation, by Malcolm McCollum
Remembering the genius of the multi-instrumentalist who played with the likes of Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, and Joe Venuti
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“Stars” – a short story by Ronald McGuire
In this story – a finalist in the recently concluded 65th Short Fiction Contest – a missing guitar leads to the dissolution of a chart-topping band. Years later their subsequent reconciliation reverberates across generations.
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“An Evening at the Genesee” – a short story by Salvatore Difalco
The story – a finalist in the recently concluded 65th Short Fiction Contest – concerns a heart-broken man trying to deal with his sadness via journaling and jazz.
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Pianists and Poets – 13 poems devoted to the keys
…From “Fatha” Hines to Brad Mehldau, poets open themselves up to their experiences with and reverence for great jazz pianists…
...Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 3: “Louis Armstrong”
In this third edition featuring excerpts from his book, Rife writes about four novels/short fiction that include stories involving Louis Armstrong.
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“Mud Men” – a short story by Koushik Banerjea
The story – a finalist in the 65th Short Fiction Contest – is about a young man who cares for his grandmother after she is discovered wandering in her neighborhood, which gives him a chance to be away from his mother and her new and intolerant partner.
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The Sunday Poem: “By Ear” by Edward A. Dougherty
Stripped down standards
ache the air. Keith Jarrett
with chronic fatigue
recorded “I Got It Bad
(And That Ain’t Good)”
in sessions so short
he sometimes ended
before the song.
“Skylark” – a short story by Allison Whittenberg
A short-listed entrant in the 65th Short Fiction Contest is a story about an accidental audition…
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“Blue Note” – a short story by Isabella Brown
A short-listed entrant in the 65th Short Fiction Contest is about a lonely writer in New York City who descends into madness upon realizing she is the only person who can hear the jazz music playing under her apartment.
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The Sunday Poem: “Fast Girl” – by Allison Whittenberg
Entertain us, entertain us all
Give, give, give with your sassy voice, your young body
Despite the migraines…
At 11, on a North Philly street, gang raped
By three creeps
It starts there, the cracks
The headache
Jazz…in eight poems
A myriad of styles and experiences displayed in eight thoughtful and provocative poems about jazz music…
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The Sunday Poem: “Mother’s Day Brunch” by Russell duPont
We’ll have a little brunch for you —
pecan-crusted French toast,
oysters, smoked salmon,
a charcuterie board.
Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – (Vol. 1)
David Rife’s essay/reviews about jazz-themed novels and stories. In this edition, Rife writes of three novels that explore challenges of the mother/daughter relationship.
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Interview with Tad Richards, author of Jazz With a Beat: Small Group Swing, 1940 – 1960
While small group swing was shunned by the jazz critical establishment for being too flamboyant and too close a cousin to the emerging (and despised) rock and roll, Richards makes the case that small group swing players like Illinois Jacquet, Louis Jordan, Big Jay McNeely, Joe Liggins, Red Prysock, T-Bone Walker and Ray Charles played a legitimate jazz that was a more pleasing listening experience to the Black community than the bebop of Parker, Dizzy, Bud Powell and Monk. It is a fascinating era, filled with major figures and events, and centered on a rigorous debate that continues to this day – is small group swing “real jazz?”
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 20: “Notes on Genius”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is written in response to the music of Wayne Shorter.
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Six poems, six poets new to Jerry Jazz Musician
These poems are new submissions by five poets relatively new to Jerry Jazz Musician, and are an example of the writing I have the privilege of encountering on a regular basis.
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A collection of jazz haiku, Vol. 2
The 19 poets included in this collection effectively share their reverence for jazz music and its culture with passion and brevity.
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 19: “The Universal Tone”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is influenced by Stillpoint, the 2021 album by Zen practitioner Barrett Martin
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Three jazz poets…three jazz poems
Takes on love and loss, and memories of Lady Day, Prez, Monk, Dolphy and others…
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On the Turntable — The “Best Of the ‘Best Of’” in 2023 jazz recordings
A year-end compilation of jazz albums oft mentioned by a wide range of critics as being the best of 2023
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“After The Death of Margaret: A True Novella” by S. Stephanie
This story — a finalist in the recently concluded 64th Short Fiction Contest — harkens back to Richard Brautigan’s fiction of the ’70s, and explores modern day co-worker relationships/friendship and the politics of for profit “Universities”
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From the Interview Archive: A 2011 conversation with Alyn Shipton, author of Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway
In this interview, Alyn Shipton discusses Cab Calloway, whose vocal theatrics and flamboyant stage presence made him one of the country’s most beloved entertainers.
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Jazz History Quiz #169
This trumpeter was in the 1932 car accident that took the life of famed saxophonist Frankie Techemacher (pictured), and is best remembered for his work with Eddie Condon’s bands. Who was he?
...“Green Street” – a poem by George Kalamaras
How can somebody so blue, Grant, be named
Green? How can the ocean current
and its waves? Simple. Immediate. Each note comes
from you slow as underwater speech. Say
a fish tank and pufferfish hugging the glass. Imagine
being trapped. Gravel pumped through the gills
Interview with Judith Tick, author of Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
In Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song, the book’s author Judith Tick writes that Ella “fearlessly explored many different styles of American song through the lens of African American jazz, [and] treated jazz as a process, not confined to this idiom or that genre,” and who “changed the trajectory of American vocal jazz in this century.” Ms. Tick. who is professor emerita of music history at Northeastern University, talks with about Ella – and her book – in this wide-ranging October 23, 2023 interview.
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Publisher’s Notes…a 3-dot update
News about upcoming publishing dates, collections, and recent posts…
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 18: “The Sermon”
Hammers in a construction site
sound like a band warming up,
weird solos by a bunch of drummers.
Jimmy Smith comes down draped in groove,
sermonizing your stride,
clouds chest-out like they know something.
A man standing in front of a house,
shouting, I got nothing from you!
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 17: “All I know about music is not many people ever really hear it”
I don’t know where it starts, he said, but can you imagine
watching They Cloned Tyrone and the music playing,
almost the whole dance club version of Love Hangover,
I can’t even watch anything, my mind looks through the settings,
the dialogue is like a crowd talking in a club and I want to listen in,
go into that Diana Ross whisper singing love voice
The Sunday Poem: “Vibrations” by Victor Enns
My eyes were faster dreaming
a drum kit in bed with me
Rapid Eye Movement Disorder
disturbing my sleep and my wife
moving away with her cellphone
camera watch my arms begin to move
A collection of jazz haiku
Earlier this year I invited poets to submit jazz-themed poetry that didn’t need to strictly follow the 5-7-5 syllabic structure of formal haiku, but had to at least be faithful to the spirit of it (i.e. no more than three lines, brief, expressive, emotionally insightful).
This collection, featuring 22 poets, is a good example of how much love, humor, sentimentality, reverence, joy and sorrow poets can fit into their haiku devoted to jazz.
...
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 16: “Little Waltz” and “Summertime”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. In this edition, the poet connects the recordings of Jessica Williams’ “Little Waltz” and Gene Harris’ “Summertime.”
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Ella Fitzgerald, in poems by Claire Andreani and Michael L. Newell
Ella Fitzgerald is whispering
to me: “sit here and enjoy your dinner with my
sweet honey voice,” eternal bloom of time,
filling the corner of the street where I eat
with a Golden Age long gone but that remains
like an idea, lingering, like the steam of a
hot bath leaving
traces of fingers on the mirror
Community Bookshelf, # 1
“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share information about their recently authored books.
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 15: “Roots and Threads”
Vivaldi, especially “The Four Seasons,”
keeps showing up in forms of jazz:
a hint, a structure—but try unraveling
any musical DNA you go straight back
to singing and to drum, voice and poetry—
The Sunday Poem: “Being Smooth, Jazz, and Chill” by Christopher D. Sims
Smooth. Jazz. Chill.
Write. Think. Build.
Listen. Vibe. Poetically
design.
Spend time with jazzy
sounds elevating the
mind. Jazz is smooth.
Jazz is chill.
What’s going on at Jerry Jazz Musician? A brief three dot update…
News about recent and upcoming features to be published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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The Sunday Poem: “You Must Live It” by Byron Beynon
During that electric dawn
when I first heard
a bracelet of notes
which traced a subtle rhythm
within an hourglass of music
and sharpened the silence with sound,
The Sunday Poem: “Unsettled” by Roger Singer
he was/
a flightless bird/
bright as sky/
full of natural lies/
and sweet conflict/
when speaking the/
jazz
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 14: “Music Under Banyan Trees” and “Notes on the Steely Dan Piece”
Two poems devoted to Steely Dan’s 1977 recording of “Aja”
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“Jazz At The Point” – a poem (and photos) by Russell duPont
The poet recalls an evening when he serendipitously encountered jazz in “The Point” neighborhood of Boston
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The Sunday Poem: – “Late Sunday” by Josie Rozell
All damn day/
talk — talk — talk/
I told him, son/
why not fit those fingers/
down that damn gullet/
and make it a proper/
squawk squawk squawk —/
The Sunday Poem: “When the Water and Sand Dance” by D.R. James
When the water and sand dance, whence (whence?)/their music? What is that music? What /jazz, what syncopation surfs itself in?
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“Guy Ryan” – a short story by Alice Sherman Simpson
. . “Guy Ryan,” a short story by Alice Sherman Simpson, was a short-listed entry in our recently concluded 62nd Short Fiction Contest, and is published with the consent of the author. . This story is a chapter from author’s book-in-progress, One For Sorrow. . . ___ . . photo by Lalesh Aldarwish/via Pexels … Continue reading ““Guy Ryan” – a short story by Alice Sherman Simpson”
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“Elvin Jones at the WGBH-TV studio in Boston, 1966” – a poem by George Kalamaras
The poet writes a profile of the jazz drummer Elvin Jones, inspired by a photograph by Lee Tanner
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“New York Triptych, 1950s” – a poem by Jim Donnelly
A remembrance of incidents in the Bronx, Harlem and at Bop City…
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The Sunday Poem: “The Drop of the Needle” by Russell duPont
The poet describes the clear, crisp sound of listening to jazz music on vinyl
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Musings on Ellington (and others) — in four poems
Poet musings on Ellington — and big band music, by the poets Claire Andreani, Russell duPont, Laurinda Lind and Terrance Underwood
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Poetic tributes to Ahmad Jamal
Several poems devoted to the pianist Ahmad Jamal, who died on April 16, 2023 at the age of 92.
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 13: “What We Talk About When We Talk About Kind of Blue”
The poet writes about the significance of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”, and why it is the “it” jazz recording…
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The Sunday Poem: “Deja Vu” by Anna Wrobel
The poet reflects on loss, fate, remembrance, and hopefulness
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The Sunday Poem: “Birth Of The Blues” by Patricia Carragon
The poet writes about the origins of our personal blues, and how they can affect us…
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 12: “Soul Music”
In this edition, the poet writes about attending a McCoy Tyner performance (or “ceremony”), and hearing the musician’s one word philosophy of music.
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“Treatise on the Moral Imperative of Showing Up for the Gig” – a poem by Joel Glickman
The poet’s humorous look at the importance of musicians showing up, and on time, for their performance!
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“Out Walks Bud” — a poem by John Menaghan
The poet tells the complex and tragic story of jazz pianist Bud Powell
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Six new poets, six new poems
A sampling of recent submissions from six poets who, until now, have not had their work published on Jerry Jazz Musician
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“Unicorn Portrait” – a short story by William Torphy
A wealthy art dealer discovers that his grandfather purchased art confiscated from Jewish families before and after World War II, and meets an elderly woman who was affected by the grandfather’s actions.
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The Sunday Poem: “Wood Ticks on Fire: Cecil Taylor and the Forests of Sound that Plant Themselves in Us” – by George Kalamaras
The poet writes about the complexity of pianist Cecil Taylor’s music, and the liberation he feels from listening to it
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“I Have Almost Everything” – a poem by Connie Johnson
The poet writes of how the desire for love can be distilled into one golden wail of a Billy Strayhorn declaration.
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“Pablo” – a short story by Joe DiBuduo
Picasso paints a portrait based on what he sees in his model’s soul, much to the ego-centric subject’s chagrin
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 11: “Blow by Blow”
“Blow by Blow” is a portrait of Berkeley, California in the 1970’s, and the fusion jazz that was finding its way onto the scene at that time.
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Four poets, four short jazz poems
Four poets share their appreciation for jazz in poems seven lines or fewer
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The Sunday Poem: “She Be” — by Prince A. McNally
The poet reveres the power and beauty and historical significance of Black women, and reads his poem
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“Ambling Towards A New Year” — a poem by Terrance Underwood
The poet brings in the new year, with the virtuoso sounds of pianist Art Tatum
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 10: “The Weeping Tree”
“The Weeping Tree” arises from the poet listening to (and watching) Sinne Eeg & Thomas Fonnesbæk perform “Willow Weep For Me”
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“Releases (Moving Poems, from the Future)” — by Sean Howard
The fierce resistance…to Revelation! Disordered
listeners. The forest clearing in the thicket… The
Universe expanding on the Theme… The
Future finally right
now?
“Supper Club” — a poem by Molly Larson Cook
Musicians
make conversation
around the notes
warm up before leaving terra firma,
say goodbye to familiar places.
Soar.
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 9: “Fire From Heaven”
“Fire From Heaven” arises from the poet Douglas Cole listening to John Coltrane’s 1964 album A Love Supreme
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“Autumn Leaves: Miles Davis” — a poem by Byron Beynon
That inner sense of freedom,
a natural balance
with an impulse
to preserve the day,
as the equinox
tilts from a window
with a view of leaves on fire.
The Blues, Classical, Jazz, Soul and Rock — in five poems
In five separate poems, poets write of Robert Johnson, Beethoven, Ornette Coleman, Duke Fakir and The Band
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“The Sweatshop” — a memoir, by Jim Donnelly
Mr. Donnelly’s “The Sweatshop” is a memoir about about his time working in a music accessory sweatshop by day, and slogging it out on the club circuit by night…
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“Wood Ticks on Fire: Cecil Taylor and the Forests of Sound that Plant Themselves in Us” — a poem by George Kalamaras
As if the stars contained wood ticks
on fire. As if there were forests within
forests. Trees within stones. Stones
folded over into water.
The most secret nocturnal animals
walk around during the day, unseen.
“It’s Jazz” — a poem by Scott Brown
It’s
sittin’ in the corner knowing what others don’t get and smile-noddin’ over scotch and coda after a day bounced you about like Buddy’s snare and high hat clamped you down to sweet Georgia brown dirt in the Summertime wailed by Sidney Bechet
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 8: “The Ghost Note”
“The Ghost Note” arises from the poet listening to “From Paris With Love” from Melody Gardot’s 2020 album Sunset in the Blue
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“Licorice Stick” – a poem by Russell duPont
The poet’s tender remembrance of his father’s passion for the clarinet
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“Resurrection Of A Muse” — a poem by Prince A. McNally
Through the art of meditation,
I become transfixed—transported
to the days of Baldwin & Joplin,
the Black Renaissance of Harlem— the resurrection
of a muse, Langston Hughes,
...
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 7: “Step Along The Night Way”
He’s a-stagger the patrilineous
hillside grove wonder tunnels
street black ribbons going bower-deep
with sunlight glitter punctuations
feeling the great payoff on the way
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 6: “Convergence”
The poem “Convergence” rises from listening to the 1960 album, “Stan Getz Quartet at Large”
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 5: “The Sunset and the Mockingbird Suite” (in honor of Tommy Flanagan)
Mr. Cole’s suite consists of eight poems, all interpretations from songs on pianist Tommy Flanagan’s album Sunset and the Mockingbird Suite
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Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 4: “Maiden Voyage”
Set forth beautiful one
open sea and open sky
as far as your eye can see
full wind filling the sails
pushing those hesitant steps
three at a time before
the cymbal crash of wave
“Reverie” — a poem by Russell duPont
Tonight, I am alone,
lost in a dream,
and the dulcet tones
of Grappelli’s violin
glide lazily across
the twilight of my mind,
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 3: “Trading Fours”
Horace Silver’s got a grove. Just listen to that left hand,
like a heart skipping a beat or jumping up to a double-beat,
like beholding something so beautiful you can hardly believe it.
“Harry’s Psalm” — a poem by Michael L. Newell
In the cold vastness of space without end,
we swirl through time, around the sun,
alone, unknown, unknowable, lonely
collections of stardust, certain we matter,
but vague as to why and how, unable
to prove our value, yet convinced we must
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 2: “The Galactic Fantastic — One Note”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This poem is written to the 1957 Coleman Hawkins recording of “Juicy Fruit.”
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“‘Swing” Street’ — A Memory” — a poem by Russell duPont
In a dream,
I walked by
what once were
rows of brownstones,
along 52nd Street;
past the ghosts
of Jimmy Ryan’s,
Spotlite, The Onyx
and 3 Deuces.
“Committee Room” — a short story by J.W. Wood
“What I have to say now stays between us.”
The Chairman’s face flushed a little. I sensed one of his rants was coming, and I was not disappointed:
“In my opinion, Jakub Hoch is a pseudo-liberal loudmouth of minimal talent who has no place as Musical Director of this orchestra.”
...
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 1: Chet Baker’s “Night Bird”
I had a little radio up on top of the refrigerator, and I turned it on as the sunlight went and the world filled up with darkness. I listened to a jazz station and smoked a cigarette and blew the smoke out the window.
...
“Miles To Go” — a poem by Ed Werstein
On my walks alone lately I fantasize
that I’ll come across a woman my age
give or take a few years.
She’ll be listening to Miles, or Monk,
or Horace Silver, and reading
one of my poetry books.
“False Memories That May Be Traced to Bourbon Street, Toronto, Ontario, June 14, 1983” — a poem by Stefán Sigurðsson
Dim dusk breaks down
the receding light and one after another
strands of the passing hour unravel
leaving behind an existence beyond time
that opens the doors to another world:
It’s late in the evening in a foreign metropolis
“Ways to Look at Blind Lemon Jefferson” — a story by Larry Smith
One of the best things about my life is that in the course of it I had the chance to see the great Blind Lemon Jefferson on eleven different occasions. This was especially gratifying because for me he was the finest blues singer who ever lived, even better than Robert Johnson or Charlie Patton or Bessie Smith.
...
Nina Simone…in two poems
Almost sixty years
have passed yet
it could be today
she sings murder
oppression
protest in the streets
school children
sitting in jail
America’s national pastime…in three poems
My father played baseball
and was a hot prospect,
so the story goes,
pursued by the Braves
until the accident that left him
with eyes that saw two of everything –
“Tough to tell which ball to swing at,” he’d say.
Jelly Roll Morton…in two poems
On my birthday in 1917, Jazz
was first recorded.
The time of Jelly Roll Morton was at
hand—the king of Blues,
“Blues In Maude’s Flat” — a broadside and poem by Russell duPont
It was the sixties.
“It’s cool,” he said.
“You’ll dig it.”
A row of attached
and run-down
brick three-stories
on a dark side-street
Interview with Alyn Shipton, author of The Art of Jazz
An interview with The Art of Jazz author Alyn Shipton, whose book is an exploration of how jazz influenced sheet music art, album art, posters, photography, and individual works of fine art.
...
Poems by Anthony Ward, D.R. James and Mike Jurkovic
On the day Miss Lena took her reward
I’m breaking bread w/Eddie
who shoveled her sidewalk as a kid
and picked Miss Ella’s roses.
High-fived Cootie runnin’ scales ’n
JB takin’ the bridge.
A broadside and poem of John Coltrane, by Russell duPont
Hunkered down
listening to Coltrane’s
Once in a While
and the smooth flow
of his sax, a whiskey
beside me, thinking
of those Jazz-infused
moments before life
began to drift away.
A broadside and poem of Miles Davis, by Russell duPont
Feelin’ Kind of Blue.
Improvised textures,
made in heaven,
escape elucidation
and drift off
into the ethereal.
“You Know…” — a poem by Russell duPont
Way back in the ‘40s,
she had a cat
black as night
and named it . . .
Well, you know.
This was the ‘40s
Two poems about Christmas (with Miles Davis) — by Michael L. Newell and D.R. James
Never up first, he was always
downstairs first, his four little boys
aligned like ascending angels
up the polished staircase, already
dressed, eager to see the tree,
“Angel Wings Grounded” — a poem by Susandale
To where have our better angels flown
Instead of wings, ghoulish shadows darken our skies
So___ past the book stalls and flower carts
And down the Champs-Elysees stretch
naked tables and vacant chairs
The “Three Dot Update”…An occasional flurry of news and information, Vol. 3
Updates and news about content recently and soon-to-be published.
...
A broadside and poem of Charles Mingus, by Russell duPont
Nineteen fifty-nine –
1-9-5-9 – things changed.
Coltrane took Giant Steps –
Miles was Kind of Blue
and Brubeck played
with Time.
A broadside and short story of Thelonious Monk, by Russell duPont
“Nah,” Mucka says to the guy in the funny hat, a couple of seats down. “We’re from Massachusetts, an hour or so from here. My friend here….” He leans back so the guy can look around him to see me….”he wanted to come down, see if we could, you know, the whole jazz thing . . . . festival …. thing.”
...
On a challenging summer in Portland, the passing of Stanley Crouch, and upcoming opportunities for writers
I have to admit, Portland has kicked my ass this summer.
Two fires continue to rage here. I’m sure you’ve heard about this city’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations that have also sparked pesky vandalism by dozens of mostly White activists. While their activities seem banal enough – a dumpster fire here, a picnic table on fire there – this behavior shamefully threatens to commandeer BLM’s objectives and gives life to a cynical and evergreen pre-election message stoking White suburban fear. The vandalism tests the patience of even the most tolerant and hopeful of local citizens.
Now mix in the fires of climate change – hot, powerful winds fanning flames on a drought-laden state – and the result is living in, for now, the epicenter of the world’s worst air quality.
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Interview with Philip Clark, author of Dave Brubeck: A Life in Time
The author discusses the enigmatic and extraordinary pianist, composer, and band leader, whose most notable achievements came during a time of major societal and cultural change, and often in the face of critics who at times found his music too technical and bombastic.
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“Louie Armstrong on the Moon” — humor by Dig Wayne
The Saturn V mega rocket had a problem with syncopation from the get go. The uber squares shipped in the highest foreheads and keenest flat tops money could buy but the translunar queso bullseye refused to step and fetch it.
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Two poems of reflection and remembrance
rain’s elegant tap dance
across rooftop across
windowpane has sorrowful
joy of old
folk tune plucked
“Consult at the 8th Street Clinic” — a poem by D.R. James
“Doc, here’s my dizzy symptom:
I’m buying these skinny books
like they’re jazz CD’s—
rackin’ ‘em up on the changer,
five at a time, punchin’ in
‘All Disks’ and ‘Shuffle,’
Two poems for Ella Fitzgerald
even in winter, she is a fire blazing, her eyes are
like the the clearest lake or the best dream or
like an opal, where night finds its song
“This Isn’t the First Morning” — a poem by John Stupp
After a New Year
not the first sunrise
not the first cold bus
not the first trip along the Ohio
not the first day at work
not any of those things
there is nothing special about this morning
“Today I Fell in Love with Shelly Manne” — a poem by John Stupp
And the clouds
unfastened their seat belts
and fell across the roads and rivers
so Pittsburgh looked like it was a flying pig
Interview with Con Chapman, author of Rabbit’s Blues: The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges
In a Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Con Chapman, author of Rabbit’s Blues: The Life and Music of Johnny Hodges – the first-ever biography of the immortal musician – talks about the enigmatic man and his unforgettable sound.
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Photography by Russell Dupont
The “before and after” work featured in this post utilizes a combination of Russell Dupont’s love for jazz, art, and photography, and when combined with modern digital technology, results in a rare way to experience the art of the music.
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“Since 1970” — a poem by Phil Linz
It’s all about the jazz…
Sonny Fortune at Boomer’s
Illinois Jacquet on 58th Street
Duvivier and Cheatham at Highlights
Poems for Rahsaan Roland Kirk — by John L. Stanizzi
. . Rahsaan Roland Kirk at the Jazz Workshop, San Francisco April, 1967 (photo by permission Veryl Oakland) . . FROM FLYTOWN When I die I want them to play the Black and Crazy Blues, I want to be cremated, put in a bag of pot and I want beautiful people to smoke me … Continue reading “Poems for Rahsaan Roland Kirk — by John L. Stanizzi”
...Summer 2019 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter
Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter, September 2019 Update about newly published content In This Issue The Jazz Photography Issue …..For many of us who revere jazz music – especially those fortunate enough to have grown up during the era of the 12 x 12 record album jacket and coffee table photography books– the images of … Continue reading “Summer 2019 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”
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Reminiscing in Tempo: “What are some of your all-time favorite record album covers?”
Gary Giddins, Jimmy Heath, Fred Hersch, Joe Hagan, Maxine Gordon, Tim Page, Veronica Swift and Marcus Strickland are among the 25 writers, musicians, poets, educators, and photographers who responded to our question, “What are some of your favorite record album covers of all time?”
...Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest — Winning Author Profiles, Group 6
On March 11, 2019, .Jerry Jazz Musician.will publish the 50th.winning story in our thrice-yearly Short Fiction Contest. To celebrate this landmark event, we have asked all the previous winners (dating to 2002) to reflect on their own winning story, and how their lives have since unfolded.
This week’s edition covers authors of winning stories #’s 29 – 34
...“The Haunted Saxophone” — a poem by Ron Campbell
There’s a pawnshop in Tarzana
Called Thrifty Pawn & Loan.
And propped up in the window
Is a haunted saxophone.
The tag says “50 dollars-
A sweet and honeyed tone”
But fifty bucks ain’t all you pay
“As Good As It Gets,” — a poem by Sheryl L. Nelms
I had them
all down
pat
from the winged
Studebaker
to the old
Henry J
“Don’t Threaten Me with Love, Baby” — a short story by Arya Jenkins
Chantal Doolittle wasn’t like anybody else she knew. Who else, for example, would stand transfixed before a record player or stereo, still as stone while listening to music — not merely attending to it — her very cells taking in the song, calculating and absorbing. “That girl is special,” Nana Esther always said.
When she was a kid and Motown was the thing, Chan would sing Marvin Gaye’s tunes to her grandmother in their high ceilinged apartment, where, more often than not it was soul music, the harmonizing voices of The Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, drifting in from the surrounding windows and disappearing into the sky that was perennially a washed out gray, as if there was an invisible flag always at half mast, hanging outside heaven. From the time she was five or six, all Chan had to do was hear a song once and she would know it. She knew all the Motown tunes word for word, and sang them right on key, perfectly, which is why Nana Esther dubbed her, “my little songbird.”
Of course, there was nothing little about Chantal, but, being her grandmother’s one and only, she was “a little one” to her. Chantal was tall, big for her age, and when she developed as a young woman, busty too. She stood out even before she opened her mouth, due to her attitude. Her nana had taught her to be “confident as a man,” and she had seemingly
...Short Fiction Contest-winning story #34: “Alto Saxophone,” by Joe DiBuduo
In a little town in Illinois, in a bar near the Wisconsin border, one man blew honey-dripping sounds from his saxophone. A woman’s body swayed in time with the sweetness emitting from that horn. She kept time with the beat and moved like melodic notes going up and down the scale. I imagined blowing musical sounds into her ear.
I crossed the wooden dance floor where she whirled, grabbed her hand and began to spin. Like musical notes, one black, one white, we danced all night. I softly sang into her ear, “Imagine how we’d dance in bed.”
She laughed in a low contralto voice, and changed it to a soprano when the high notes flowed.
...New Short Fiction Contest-winning story #31: “Night Cafe,” by Joe DiBuduo
When my doctor released me from the asylum in Saint-Remy, he warned me to stay away from absinthe or my hallucinations would worsen. I didn’t tell him I had no need for absinthe to hallucinate. I often had company, even when there wasn’t anyone with me.
I’d spent some of my time in the asylum playing billiards. Everyone assured me that I was a natural, the best player they’d ever seen. Maybe, instead of painting, I’d play billiards for a living. As soon as I walked past the gates of the asylum,
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Alyn Shipton, author of Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway
Clad in white tie and tails, dancing and scatting his way through the “Hi-de-ho” chorus of “Minnie the Moocher,” Cab Calloway exuded a sly charm and sophistication that endeared him to legions of fans.
In Hi-de-ho, author Alyn Shipton offers the first full-length biography of Cab Calloway, whose vocal theatrics and flamboyant stage presence made him one of the highest-earning African American bandleaders. Shipton sheds new light on Calloway’s life and career, explaining how he traversed racial and social boundaries to become one of the country’s most beloved entertainers.
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David Robertson, author of W.C. Handy: The Life and Times of the Man Who Made the Blues
Before there was Elvis, there was W.C. Handy, the man who made the blues. Here is the first major biography in decades of the man who gave us such iconic songs as St. Louis Blues, The Memphis Blues, and Beale Street Blues, and who was responsible, more than any other musician, for bringing the blues into the American mainstream.
David Robertson charts W.C. Handys rise from a rural Alabama childhood in the last decades of the nineteenth century to become one of the most celebrated songwriters of the twentieth century. The child of former slaves, Handy was first inspired by spirituals and folk songs, and his passion for music pushed him to leave home as a teenager, despite opposition from his preacher father.
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Conversations with Gary Giddins: on his book, Natural Selection
Long recognized as America’s most brilliant jazz writer, the winner of many major awards — including the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award — and author of a highly popular biography of Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins has also produced a wide range of stimulating and original cultural criticism in other fields. With Natural Selection, he brings together the best of these previously uncollected essays, including a few written expressly for this volume.
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Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry author Tim Brooks
Lost Sounds is the first in-depth history of the involvement of African Americans in the earliest years of recording. It examines the first three decades of sound recording in the United States, charting the surprising role black artists played in the period leading up to the Jazz Age.
Applying more than thirty years of scholarship, Tim Brooks identifies key black artists who recorded commercially in a wide range of genres and provides revealing biographies of some forty of these audio pioneers. Brooks assesses the careers and recordings of George W. Johnson, Bert Williams, George Walker, Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, W.C. Handy, James Reese Europe, Wilbur Sweatman, boxing champion Jack Johnson, as well as a host of lesser-known voices.
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Ishmael Reed, author of Blues City: A Walk in Oakland
Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with natural beauty — mountains and hills and lakes and a bay — and architecture that mirrors its history as a Spanish mission, Gold Rush outpost, and home of the West’s most devious robber barons.
Oakland is also a city of artists and blue-collar workers, the birthplace of the Black Panthers, neighbor to Berkeley, and home to a vibrant and volatile stew of immigrants and refugees.
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Francis Davis on his career as a critic, and on John Coltrane
Philadelphian Francis Davis is the author of several books, including The History of the Blues, Bebop and Nothingness and a forthcoming biography of John Coltrane. A contributing editor of The Atlantic Monthly, he also writes regularly about music for the New York Times, among others.
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In This Issue
The Sunday Poem
A miniature by Barbara Anna Gaiardoni
The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Barbara Anna Gaiardoni reads her poem at its conclusion
Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem
Poetry
Essay
Community
Poetry
Publisher’s Notes
A Letter from the Publisher
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.
Feature
Community
Interview
Poetry
Jazz History Quiz
Short Fiction
Poetry
Playlist
Poetry
Short Fiction
Essay
Poetry
Feature
Short Fiction
Interview
Feature
Short Fiction
Essay
Community
Feature
Poetry
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Playlist
Art
Community
Contributing Writers
Coming Soon
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