5
1
9781931236096
Jazz Fan Looks Back available in Paperback
- ISBN-10:
- 1931236097
- ISBN-13:
- 9781931236096
- Pub. Date:
- 02/19/2002
- Publisher:
- Hanging Loose Press
- ISBN-10:
- 1931236097
- ISBN-13:
- 9781931236096
- Pub. Date:
- 02/19/2002
- Publisher:
- Hanging Loose Press
$14.0
Current price is , Original price is $14.0. You
Buy New
$14.00Buy Used
$14.00
$14.00
-
SHIP THIS ITEM— This item is available online through Marketplace sellers.
-
PICK UP IN STORE
Your local store may have stock of this item.
Available within 2 business hours
This item is available online through Marketplace sellers.
$14.00
-
SHIP THIS ITEM
Temporarily Out of Stock Online
Please check back later for updated availability.
14.0
Out Of Stock
Overview
Poetry. African American Studies. "If you haven't read Jayne Cortez you're missing some of the best that life has to offer. Here is always a compelling voice of fire and freedom. Her surrealism-the hottest on record. If you think you're a revolutionary, read Jayne Cortez and you'll be ten times more revolutionary"-Franklin Rosemont, Surrealism. Noted performer and poet Cortez is the author of twelve books of poems, among them Scarification and Mouth on Paper, and has performed her poetry with music on nine recordings. Her awards include the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation of the Arts, the International African Festival Award, the American Book Award, and the Langston Hughes Award. Her latest CD recordings with her band The Firespitters are Taking the Blues Back Home and Find Your Voice. "Jayne Cortez understands beter than most how to make spoken words and images swing and rock"-Gene Seymour, Newsday.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781931236096 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Hanging Loose Press |
Publication date: | 02/19/2002 |
Pages: | 116 |
Product dimensions: | 6.08(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.37(d) |
Read an Excerpt
Excerpt
TAPPING
(For Baby Laurence and Other Tap Dancers)
When i pat this floor
with my tap
when i slide on air
and fill this horn intimate with
the rhythm of my two drums
when i cross kick
scissor locomotive
take four for nothing
four we're gone
when the solidarity of my yoruba turns
joins these vibrato feet
in a Johnny Hodges lick
a chorus of insistent Charlie Parker riffs
when i stretch out for a chromatic split
together with my double X
converging in a quartet of circles
when i dance my spine in a slouch
slur my lyrics with a heel slide
arch these insteps in free time
when i drop my knees
when i fold my hands
when i decorate this atmosphere
with a Lester Young leap and
enclose my hip-like snake repetitions
in a chanting proverb
of the freeze
i'm gonna spotlite myboogie
in a Coltrane yelp
echo my push in a Coleman Hawkins whine
i'm gonna frog my hunch in a Duke Ellington strut
quarter-stroke my rattle
like an Albert Ayler cry
i'm gonna accent my march in a Satchmo pitch
triple my grind in a Ma Rainey blues
i'm gonna steal no steps
i'm gonna pay my dues
i'm gonna 1 2 3
and let the people in the apple
go hmmmp hmmmp hmmmp
BRIGHT BROWN SUMMER
Lord Nelson
Star dusted on
Santa Barbara
in Max's free-town
You and Lord
preacher Brown
stroking prayer bells
as you ate the horn up
you did
Moist fleshy lips
weeping willows
under a blue moon
on a new day
Kissing the foot of
Oh Woo Wee Doo
smacking Blackies
heart in a
flashy mass spittle
of fire
stompin pride
from muted cries
on the truth hunt
Some of us heard
the delivered wordClifford
Keeper of the horn
Young sputtering deacon
in the spiritual choir
singing with Fats & Freddy
Untouched by bets
and other Chets
even full-fledged taps
wouldn't begin to cut
the tone-blown love
flung from
the mack-mans bad tongue
HOW LONG HAS TRANE BEEN GONE (1968)
Tell me about the good things
you clappin & laughin
Will you remember
or will you forget
Forget about the good things
like Blues & Jazz being Black
Yeah Black Music
all about you
And the musicians that
write & play about you
a Black brother groanin
a Black sister moanin
& beautiful Black children
ragged ... underfed laughin
not knowin
Will you remember their names
or do they have no names
no lives only products
to be used when you wanna
dance fuck & cry
You takin they givin
You livin they
creating starving dying
trying to make a better tomorrow
Giving you & your children a history
But what do you care about
history Black History
and John Coltrane
No
All you wanna do
is pat your foot
sip a drink & pretend
with your head bobbin up & down
What do you care about acoustics
bad microphones or out-of-tune pianos
& noise
You the club owners & disc jockeys
made a deal didn't you
a deal about Black Music
& you really don't give
a shit long as you take
There was a time
when certain radio stations played all Black Music
from Charlie Parker to Johnny Ace
on show after show
but what happened
I'll tell you what happened
they divided Black Music
doubled the money
& left us split again
is what happened
John Coltrane's dead & some
of you
have yet to hear him play
How long how long has that Trane been gone
and how many more Tranes will go
before you understand your life
John Coltrane who had the whole of
life wrapped up in B flat
John Coltrane like Malcolm
True image of Black Masculinity
Now tell me about the good things
I'm telling you about
John Coltrane
A name that should ring
throughout the projects mothers
Mothers with sons
who need John Coltrane
Need the warm arm of his music
like words from a Father
words of Comfort
words of Africa
words of Welcome
How long how long has that Trane been gone
John palpitating love notes
in a lost-found nation
within a nation
His music resounding discovery
signed Always
John Coltrane
Rip those dead white people off
your walls Black People
Black people whose walls
should be a hall
A Black Hall of Fame
so our children will know
will know & be proud
Proud to say I'm from Parker City Coltrane City Ornette City
Pharaoh City living on Holiday Street next to
James Brown Park in the State of Malcolm
How long
how long
will it take for you to understand
that Trane's been gone
riding in a portable radio
next to your son who's lonely
Who walks walks walks into nothing
no city no state no home no nothing
how long
How long
have Black People been gone
THE ROAD
Blue Stone in Memphis
Stony blue cries
in honky-tonk taverns
on the road
from K town
to K town
the road
the same road that downed
Bessie in the ground
and amputated round way over in London Town
Where another Hank moans
Stony Lonesome
Bessie's arm was torn
when the Blues came down mean
Them Lowdown Dirty Blues
Dancing Round
Whining in Bessie
"Get Back Blues"
Excerpted from JAZZ FAN LOOKS BACK by Jayne Cortez. Copyright © 2002 by Jayne Cortez. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
From the B&N Reads Blog
Page 1 of