Transcript Jazz and Poetry File

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA
Jazz & Poetry
KOMUNYAKAA’S EARLY YEARS
Born in Bogalusa in 1947
 Grew up during the Civil Rights era
 Hardly any books in his childhood house
 Graduated from Bogalusa High School
 In 1965, enlisted in the Army to fight in the
Vietnam War
 After coming back to Louisiana, in 1981 he
completed Copacetic, which explores race, place,
music


He discovered that jazz music was being used
both as a forum in which to express racial
iniquity and as a catharsis to heal the wounds
which resulted from hatred and bigotry.
http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/komunyakaa/biography.php
JAZZ AND BLUES
New Orleans – Jazz
 Bogalusa –Blues

Jazz originally came from New Orleans whereas
blues originated from Mississippi.
 Jazz enjoyed nationwide penetration in America
compared to the pocketed popularity of blues
music during their early heydays.
 Jazz has more syncopation than blues making it
a more complicated music style.
 Blues was ordinarily a more vocal form of music
unlike the more instrumental jazz music.

JAZZ
Harmonic progressions
 Improvisation
 Swing feel
 Instrumentation: a rhythm section (drum set,
bass, piano/guitar)
 Syncopation
 The use of "Blue" note (also "worried" note) is a
note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than
that of the major scale for expressive purpose
 Importance of the "solo"

Spontaneity
 Silence
 Syncopation
 Improvisation


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Improvisation is the technique of changing a
melody as you play it so that it’s not the same
every time. This may be done by modifying the
notes, rhythm, or both. In jazz, players often
improvise to reflect their moods
Syncopation—the emphasis is placed between the
notes
KOMUNYAKAA’S POETRY

About and informed/shaped by music

Language, rhythm, pauses, unexpected moments

Copacetic
CHARLIE PARKER


“Testimony”: a fourteen-page libretto that explores
the life and legacy of Charlie Parker. It celebrates
Parker's humanity, and, in doing so, it does not shy
from the complexity of his music or personality. The
poem encounters Parker at various stages of the alto
saxophonist's life and presents a variety of voices that
broaden our perspectives on the man and his music.
Komunyakaa testifies to genius but never at the
expense of human truths, nor does he allow biography
to eclipse his own artistry: stanza by stanza, section
after section, he fuses language and music with
astonishing success (Feinstein).
Miles Davis and Charlie Parker “Night in Tunisia”
"BLUE LIGHT LOUNGE FOR THE
PERFORMANCE POETS AT HAROLD PARK
HOTEL"
you gotta get hooked
into every hungry groove
so deep the bomb locked
in rust opens like a fist
into it into it so deep
rhythm is pre-memory
the need gotta be basic
“BLUE LIGHT LOUNGE”
“so deep words can't/answer simple questions”
(“Blue Light” 2-3).
the speaker explores his struggle to express
his most internal thoughts and feelings
the speaker wants to “blow that saxophone/so
deep” (“Blue Light” 18-19) that he will be able to
“vomit up ghosts” (“Blue Light” 12) of the past—
ghosts of racism and hate
The speaker hopes that the music might be able to
reach all the way to his core, and only the music
will be able to bring out these dark, suppressed
emotions without leaving him completely
“broken” (“Blue Light” 13).
The music of the saxophone holds everything the
speaker has. With it, he might be able to “get
hooked/into every human groove," and the
speaker can dive into what it means to be human
on both a personal level and on a universal level
(“Blue Light” 29-30).
CONCLUSION

When reading Komunyakaa’s poetry, look and
listen for musicality in his tone and lyricism in
his language. His writing has been shaped by the
jazz and blues music that has surrounded him for
much of his life.