Do tell about jazz poetry . important jazz poets & their works

Deb dulal halder Halder

JAZZ POETS   Jazz poetry is a literary genre defined as poetry necessarily informed by jazz music—that is, poetry in which the poet responds to and writes about jazz. Jazz poetry, like the music itself, encompasses a variety of forms, rhythms, and sounds. Beginning with the birth of blues and jazz at the start of the twentieth century, jazz poetry is can be seen as a thread that runs through the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat movement, and the Black Arts Movement—and it is still vibrant today. From early blues to free jazz to experimental music, jazz poets use their appreciation for the music as poetic inspiration. Jazz artists make appearances in jazz poems as well: Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Bessie Smith, and Lester Young are just some of the muses for jazz poetry. But writing about jazz poetry is, as they say, like dancing about architecture. Perhaps the form can be best understood through a few lines from the poets themselves: Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway . . . He did a lazy sway . . . To the tune o' those Weary Blues.           —from "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes I crisscrossed with Monk Wailed with Bud Counted every star with Stitt Sang "Don’t Blame Me" with Sarah Wore a flower like Billie Screamed in the range of Dinah & scatted "How High the Moon" with Ella Fitzgerald as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium Jazz at the Philharmonic           —from "Jazz Fan Looks Back" by Jayne Cortez Poets in the jazz tradition include Amiri Baraka, Marvin Bell, Sterling Brown, Hayden Carruth, Cortez, Hughes, Michael S. Harper, Jack Kerouac, Yusef Komunyaaka, Mina Loy, Kenneth Rexroth, and Sonia Sanchez.