What's in the Notes: The Sound of Jazz in Poetry

Abstract

What'sinthe Notes: The Sound ofJazz in Poetry LaurenCamp a writer everhopeto successfully render an auralform in words?Can thatwriter makeitpossibleforus to appreciate whatwe might otherwise hear?To complicate thechanceofadequately capturing sound,try askingthatwriter toexpress jazzoneofthemostsophisticated musicalforms, a construction thatdemandsa certain openness andperhaps evenexperience with themusic. Somewriters are able to turnjazz inside out, making uswanttolisten more closely. Each writer seesdifferent seams,different waysthe musicis stitched together. Eachis courageous because,after all,jazz is crazy-impossible to style eventhefirst time, and thesewriters are re-styling itfor us. Inmyyears broadcasting jazz ontheradio, themostcommoncomment Tve heardis a simpleone: "I justdon'tunderstand it."Jazz is a remarkable beast - a many-headed animal, onemany peopleseemafraid togetnear.How canwe define jazz? Is itMilesDavis's Bitches Brew and thefusion soundsofthe1970s?Is it theethereal andabstract structures that today's musicians keepbuilding? Is itsomething else? Wemayneedreassurance that wecangetclose, that wecanletthecreature climb intoourlap. Certainly, ifyoucometojazzwith a knowledgeofmusicand howitis created - inother words, ifyouarea musician - youknowabout secondsandfifths andscales.You knowabout melodyand timesignatures. You are already educated abouthowtodecipher phrasing and multitextural sounds. Ifyoucometojazz as a historian, themusic repeats whatyoualreadyknow.Jazz,in particular , is a vitalchronicle ofwherewe are,or where wejustwere.Inmorethanonesense,it isa "record" ofthetimes. Musicians figure out a waytocorral politics andtheir ownpersonal wounds.Then,through theirinstrument and ensemble, through their compositions andconcerts , they givevoiceandexpression towhatis happening. Poetsdo thesame,shifting words, meaning, andmetaphor tobuilda rhythm and harmony, tobuilda statement. Butwhathappenswhena writer takesthe audibleinputaway,whenwords - and more specifically, poems - becometheonlysounds we hear?This could confound a reader - or maybe, ifwe'relucky, clarify. Just as withpoetry, youcancometojazz withnothing, no understanding. Perhapsthis is the best way to appreciateany formof expression. As a visual artist(amongother all-consuming disciplines), I am mostmoved by theresponseof people who reactviscerallytomywork , thendisavowtheir comments becausethey haveno formal arteducation. To knownothing might justbe thetruest wayto experience anycomplex artform. You respond withyourbodyand yourfeelings - and leave ¡ theanalytical, thinking mindtotheside.Allit reallytakesis theability to openyoursenses andreceive. I O 1 might wonderwhyjazz is so inspira- I tionaltopoets.Poetry andjazz havelong I slepttogether; theBeatsmerged thetwointoan I uncensored, often stream-of-consciousness style I thatseemedtofallas easilyfrom their pensas I Dizzy'sand Bird'snotesfellfrom their horns. I Soundsspewedandstreamed; they rushed out I inalldirections. I Butthatis nottheonlyform jazz poetry I takes,norshouldit be. The canonofjazz is I enormous; it allowsformanydifferent styles I ofexpression. Thegiddynotesof"traditional I jazz" datebackmorethanonehundred years. I Thosesoundseventually ledinto thebusymaze I ofbebop.Nomatter howthat music twisted and I turned, itstill provided a wonderful network of I JAZZ POETRY JAZZ POETRY possibilityforsound. The music was easy to get lost in, and if you didn't emerge again fora while,that was okay too. It took you somewhere, as all good artdoes. The music flowed from and through thatcomplex wall of sound, and from the postwar dissent of those times.Itis astounding to hear how much a musician could manage to say beforethe vinylranout. The music didn't stay there, though. Jazz kept swinging forward,shifting and reflecting the everevolving structureof our society. Today's substance, to hope to gather it in your handsand makesense ofitinyourwords. O of the truly brightspots in jazz is each proclamationofsomethingthat came before - thehint of a previous tune, quoted, then turned on itshead. Whenyou hear a familiarsound reconstructed from an earliergeneration, it is like being given the currency to buy your way into a new tune. And isn't this, in a way, what our authors are doing spinning jazz so we jazz is a sound thatis impossibletodescribein one way. It is urban noise pressed against the edge of hip-hop,and it is sound that travels down wide avenues of patience. It is sound thatbranchesout and up untilyou are notsure which treeyou've climbed or why,but meanwhile ,as longas you're up there,you mightas well admiretheview. Itis sound thatallows us to forgetthegriefand ceremonyof the world aroundus,orsound thatpushes us directly into whatmightseem likedarknessand disorder.It is frivolous and itis necessary. Ifyou happen tobe moved by themusic and youalso happen tobe a writer - itis natural to attemptto definethismalleable,miraculous mightalmostunderstand,if not the whole of it,at least one perspective?The poet has lived with the contentsof thattune,thatmusician, thatmusic.It is in him - and fromit,and from what he findsnearbyin his world,he presents itto us. So themusiccontinuesin thesewords, accompanied by the...