"Keep It in the Head": Jazz Elements in Modern Black American Poetry

Abstract

The subject of jazz music is reflected in the poetry of many Black American writers. Rhythm or imagery, and sometimes both, are often affected by this artistic concern. In defining the Black American identity, contemporary minority poetry has devoted itself to the ideas of freedom, protest, and cultural pride, and by dramatizing the importance of jazz as part of a proud, ongoing cultural tradition, Black writers continually remind us of the close connection between poetry and music. Though much has been written about the general connection between Black music and Black poetry, notably Stephen Henderson's introductory essay to his Understanding the New Black Poetry (1973) and his long essay in The Militant Black Writer (1969), I wish to concentrate specifically on the subject of jazz, and exclude references to other types of Black music like gospels, field songs, shouts, spirituals, or Black popular songs. In this paper I will briefly identify two general patterns1 by which jazz elements are manifested in contemporary Black American poetry: (1) the use of syncopated rhythms which hope to approximate the sounds and cadences of jazz (as in poems by Langston Hughes, Victor Hernandez Cruz, and to some extent, Gwendolyn Brooks), and (2) the focus on specifically named jazz musicians to enhance imagery or theme (as in works by Imamu Amiri Baraka, Calvin Hernton, and A. B. Spellman). The poems I will be discussing, with one exception, are not included in Henderson's anthology. My paper will conclude with an examination of the poetry of Al Young, a writer who, as much as or more than other Black poets, regularly and quite beautifully incorporates the subject of jazz into his work.