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solo from the vast jazz repertoire, and they write words to perform to it. Vocalese
jazz is truly an underrated art form. It requires real thought and attention.” Eg
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“Why is jazz poetry? Jazz vocalists, especially white vocalists and especially in the idiom of
the most advanced jazz, are not very common. Most Negro singers stay pretty close to the
blues, and there is more to modern jazz than blues. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, there are
not many singers whom all schools of jazz find congenial. Curiously enough, the poet
reciting, if he knows what he is doing, seems to “swing” to the satisfaction of many musicians
in a way that too few singers do. I think it is wrong to put down all popular ballad lyrics as
trivial; some of them are considerable poetry in their own right, but certainly most are
intellectually far beneath the musical world of modern jazz, and far less honest. The best jazz
is above all characterized by its absolute emotional honesty. This leaves us with the words of
the best blues and Negro folksong, often very great poetry indeed, but still a limited aspect of
experience, and by no means everything, translated into words, that modern jazz has to say. In
other words, poetry gives jazz a richer verbal content, reinforces and expands its musical
meaning and, at the same time, provides material of the greatest flexibility.”(
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The Weary Blues
by Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan-"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more-"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied-I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.
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eJazz and Voices was presented to a capacity audience (Festival Hall, Waterloo Room) on 6th
June 1961 with the Quartet, the Johnny Scott Quintet… and speakers from the University of
London led by Heather Black (nee Kay, of the Barrow Poets). I was greeted at the back by
Jeremy Robson. By coincidence, he had organised a similar concert a week earlier with poets
rather than speakers. He asked if I could provide the music for a tour being organised by
playwright Arnold Wesker whereby, under the aegis of the TUC Resolution 42, performing arts
would be taken to factory environs. So began a collaboration that endured for the next decade
as Poetry and Jazz in concert.
The tour began at the Belgrave Theatre, Coventry with a line up of Dannie Abse, Laurie Lee,
Spike Milligan, Adrian Mitchell, Jeremy Robson and the Quartet, with Shake Keane on trumpet
and flugelhorn, bassist Johnny Taylor, and Colin Barnes on drums….A little later Jeremy was
able to extend the budget so we could also have Joe Harriott – at £10 a gig the money was
good. Many musicians were derisory about poetry and jazz but Shake and Joe had a natural
feeling for what was going on and a willingness to be involved in something which audiences
found novel and fresh”
Blues for the lonely – Jeremy Robson and the Michael Garrick Quintet from Poetry and Jazz in
Concert
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Gil Scott-Heron (born April 1, 1949) is an American poet, musician,
and author known primarily for his late 1970s and early 1980s work as a
spoken word performer and his collaborative soul works with musician
Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical
fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content
concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both
rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these
albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the
early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American
music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording
work is often associated with black militant activism and has received
much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions "The
Revolution Will Not Be Televised". On his influence, Allmusic wrote
"Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop
artists".[1]
The revolution will not be televised from Ghetto Style, Gil Scott Heron(
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