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THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE Early jazz poetry did not mimic the sounds and improvisational spirit of jazz. Instead, it heavily referenced the musical form with allusions made to musicians, instruments, and locations key to the burgeoning jazz scene. Poets like Vachel Lindsay (who actually abhorred the "primitive" sound of jazz music) and Mina Loy wrote poetry in this vein. It was with the advent of the Harlem Renaissance that jazz poetry developed into what it is today. Poets like Langston Hughes and Carl Dunbar incorporated the syncopated rhythms and repetitive phrases of blues and jazz music into their writing. Hughes and Dunbar, like many Harlem Renaissance writers, were deeply concerned with racial pride and with the creation of purely African-American poetry. Since jazz music was an important part of African-American culture at the time, Hughes and others like him adapted the musical genre to create their own, singularly African-American voices that could easily be distinguished from the work of white poets. Many of Hughes' poems, such as "Weary Man Blues," sound almost exactly like popular jazz and blues songs of the period, and vice versa. His work is also highly evocative of Spirituals . BEBOP AND THE BEAT GENERATION As members of the (largely white) had a similar collaboration with saxophone player Stan Getz . Beat poet Bob Kaufman was said by some to be the greatest jazz poet ever to have lived, with the exception of Langston Hughes, as in this article from the Beat Museum website . Kaufman paid homage to jazz in poems like "O Jazz O" and "Morning Joy." His work is notable for its syncopated rhythms, surreal imagery, and a quality of alienation stemming from Kaufman's own role in life as a drifter and a jailbird. In the 1960s and '70s, the Beat poet formerly known as LeRoi Jones renamed himself Amiri Baraka and revived the idea of jazz poetry as a source of black pride. Baraka was a cultural nationalist who believed that ""Black People are a race, a culture, a Nation. {Link without Title} " Elements of jazz show up often in Baraka's work, such as syncopation and repetition of phrases. MODERN JAZZ POETRY The tradition of jazz poetry has been carried on by hip-hop and rap artists, who often set poetic lyrics to syncopated beats. Another parallel that can be drawn is that of the freestyle rap, which features lyrics improvised to a beat, thus capturing the spontaneous, improvised nature of the jazz poem. Slam Poetry , a genre made up of experimental spoken word and performance poets, also places an emphasis on the relationship between poetry, performance, and spontaneity. Slam poets may often be accompanied by an instrument. Like jazz poetry, slam poetry discards poetry's roots in academia and instead focuses on popular culture and issues of current social significance. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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