“On Becoming A Jazz Fanatic In The Early 1970’s” – 20 linked short poems by Daniel Brown

February 9th, 2024

[Columbia Records]

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On Becoming A Jazz Fanatic In The Early 1970’s
…20 linked short poems, in memory of jazz mentors Al Summ & Bruce Talbott

it seems like thousands
of nights hunkered
over dark beer and jazz

with my Guru
the janitor who taught
jazz to the novice

with a stack
of LP’s
in his living room–

all was open
to discussion
Chicago to New Thing

flatted fifth solidarity–
the quest for records
WE CRAVE NOW!!

be-bop pianists
our exclusive, elusive heroes
such as Dodo and Di Novi

or Barnet’s
Claude Williamson
and his showpiece ‘Claude REIGNS’

unfamiliar except
to OCD members
of the club

don’t forget the tenors
Wardell Gray, Don Byas,
the white Pres boys

and that Getz solo
on Woody Herman’s
‘Early Autumn’

even talking late
into the night
on a quiet doorstep about

— yes, Fats Navarro on Blue Note
1948 Tadd Dameron, Maggie McGhee,
Eager and Rouse

our lives
proved to be a surprise
a wow after wow

like Coltrane’s entrance
on Miles’
‘Someday My Prince Will Come’–

Japanese reissues
10 inch Herbie Nichols LP
an orchestra within a trio

discovering Django
and his
gypsy swing

the hat and beard tower
of the mad Monk
monastery

Sonny Rollins
St. Thomas
‘Saxophone Colossus’

Konitz New Paltz 1974
‘Kary’s Trance’
another dimension

since that brief window
sounds keep spinning
50 years, 1000 stanzas

slowly knowing the unknown

___

Daniel Brown has loved jazz (and music in general) ever since he delved into his parents’ 78 collection as a child. He is a retired special education teacher who began writing as a senior. He always appreciates being published in a journal or anthology. His first poetry collection, Family Portraits in Verse and Other Illustrated Poems, was recently published by Epigraph Books.

Click here to read Daniel’s remembrance of friend and jazz aficionado Al Summ, who, along with Bruce Talbot, these short poems are written in memory of.

Listen to the 1957 recording of Woody Herman and His Orchestra playing “Early Autumn” [Universal Music Group]