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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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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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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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
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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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—
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
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.
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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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.
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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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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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“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 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 — 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.
...Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest — Winning Author Profiles, Group 5
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 24 – 28
...“Lay Out” — a short story by Barnaby Hazen
You’ve played this gig at the Tennyson Lodge at least a hundred times by now you figure—three years times twice a week, Wednesdays and Thursdays. You just took a solo and now The Kid is thumping on his oversized instrument, oversized by comparison to his body. He’s a five-foot-nothing of a chubby student bassist having joined the quartet two weeks prior. His dark, stylishly teased hair is stuck in place by product, his eyes just barely open and he rocks left to right in a manner offensive to you for some reason.
You don’t need a reason. You’ve been doing this long enough to call it like you see it and The Kid is nothing more than a vaguely promising hack. You might want to talk to him on break, get a better idea where his head is at, but meanwhile he’s wiggling around and you kind of hope he gets caught under a
...Connecting Fiction with Music
While in the midst of reviewing the stories from the over 100 entrants in our current Short Fiction Contest, I have been impressed by the spirit of creativity that shines through in virtually every submission. No matter the story theme, the creative energy and spontaneity is as frequently evident in the writer’s turn of a phrase as it is in a jazz musician’s harmonic progression.
The other day I got into a conversation about how jazz musicians of the 1950’s and the Beat era writers shared an artistic language and had similar creative values that showed up in a variety of examples. The one that came to mind first was in Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” where Kerouac is inspired by a jazz performance in Chicago…This is what he writes:
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Outside In: A Jazz (and Writing) Odyssey, by Scott Shachter
In this June, 2013 essay, Scott Shachter shares many of the creative and business challenges he had to overcome before the first copy of his novel Outside In was pressed. It is a story many of our finest writers share today — that of remaining authentic in spirit and vision in a world where formula is most often rewarded.
...Short Fiction Contest-winning story #27: “The Open Marriage,” by Ben Murray
ten minutes into sound and I have begun to lean, to lean forward in these shared chairs towards glissando, towards pluck and sizzle and crash. Ellen is a grace note, a cello curve beside me in this dark, lovely, smitten club of jazz.
that I know it’s Ellen’s thigh and hip accompanying mine is a testament to the radii of our ring fingers, the shiny bands there that play so seriously at patience and time.
Nominations for the Pushcart Prize XLVIII
Announcing the six writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize v. XLVIII, whose work was published in Jerry Jazz Musician during 2023.
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“The End of a Love Affair” — a short story by Gareth Davey
Gareth Davey writes a fictional account of the tragic death of the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan
...In This Issue
(featuring the art of Paul Lovering)
Interview
Publisher’s Notes
The Sunday Poem
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Feature
Short Fiction
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Poetry
Feature
Playlist
Poetry
Book Excerpt
Interview
Short Fiction
Art
Essay
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole
In Memoriam
Book Excerpt
Click here to read more book excerpts published on Jerry Jazz Musician
Jazz History Quiz #174
Community
Contributing Writers
Coming Soon
Interview Archive
