I’ve Only Ever Known Jazz
Of singers who lay claim to jazz,
I only hear a copied trend:
Styles, arrangements, timbre, sound
Make their populistic rounds.
Then I sing; hear harmonies,
Voicings, bass lines, every chord;
No schmaltz, no crotch, no gestured show,
Knowing I’m a jazz-rich throat,
Each note sung on the spot,
Improvised creatively right from the start.
Do I have a heart? Sure, but
I never will be Bassey – more a Sassy
Jazz-directed to my toes;
God knows how it begins and shows.
My instrument the ears and what they hear,
Voice right or wrong Informed by song.
Monk-like clusters mustered up by choice and taste;
Diatonic or laconic, unexpectedly chromatic:
Product of the 50’s ‘cool’.
Schooled by Ella, Vaughan, Tormé,
Miles, Gillespie, Chet, Monk, Christy,
Frishberg’s, Dorough’s’’s Blossom’s spunk,
Mose, Matt Dennis; Hendricks, Hancock,
Hundreds more…great tunes galore:
Some you haven’t heard before!
These my first and opened door.
Whereas some others have their glaze,
I’ve only ever known cool jazz –
Spontaneous, each choice unfazed.
That my music’s cool soul’s razzmatazz.
I’ve Only Ever Known Jazz 4.24.2021 Vaguely About Music II; Arlene Nover Corwin
Arlene Corwin Poetry 