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photo by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Lester Young at the Famous Door; New York, c. 1946
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Liner Notes to Bluesy Jazz, a Playlist
The key to playing “Mo Better Blues”
is not marching double time through
the melody on to the solo. Don’t linger—
but don’t paint by numbers either.
Maybe the piano gets a little gospel.
Strings bend as choice notes hang on
before letting go. Maybe that smooth
groove bumps with the odd thud of a tom
while brushes chill things out, rhythmning
nice and groovy, nice and bluesy,
walking with the bass, good company
through the valley of darkness. This—
when you finally get there—this is what
your solo will draw on. This and your
pain. Your part in it. Go slow with it.
Put your heart in it.
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(Among the artists on this 15-song Spotify playlist the poet assembled are Lester Young, Gene Ammons, Charlie Parker, Joe Pass, and Art Pepper)
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Chuck Sweetman’s career in jazz lasted for six weeks of lessons on the sax, but jazz remains a key source of inspiration. He is senior editor for december magazine. His essays, stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in such places as Verse Daily, River Styx, Poet Lore, Black Warrior Review, and Notre Dame Review. His chapbook of poems, Incorporated, won the 2007 Dream Horse Press Chapbook Prize and was consolidated into the book Enterprise, Inc. (2008)
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