Jazz Fan Looks Back, a Jazz Poem by Jayne Cortez

In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, as well as National Poetry Month, we present Jayne Cortez, one of our renowned jazz poets. 

Jayne Cortez (May 10, 1934 – December 28, 2012) was an African-American poet, activist and spoken-word performance artist.  Her writing is part of the canon of the Black Arts Movement. She was born Sallie Jayne Richardson. Jayne Cortez was the author of 12 books of poems and performed her poetry with music on nine recordings. Her poems were translated into 28 languages, widely published in magazines, anthologies and journals. Her work has been presented at museums, universities, as well as festivals in Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, The Caribbean and United States.

She presented her work and ideas at universities, museums, and festivals in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the Caribbean and the United States. Her poems have been translated into 28 languages and widely published in anthologies, journals and magazines. Among her awards, she received, the American Book Award, Arts International, International African Festival Award, Langston Hughes Medal, National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

Jazz Fan Looks Back

By Jayne Cortez

I crisscrossed with Monk

Wailed with Bud

Counted every star with Stitt

Sang “Don’t Blame Me” with Sarah

Wore a flower like Billie

Screamed in the range of Dinah

& scatted “How High the Moon” with Ella Fitzgerald

as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium

Jazz at the Philharmonic

I cut my hair into a permanent tam

Made my feet rebellious metronomes 

Embedded record needles in paint on paper

Talked bopology talk

Laughed in high-pitched saxophone phrases

Became keeper of every Bird riff

every Lester lick

as Hawk melodicized my ear of infatuated tongues

& Blakey drummed militant messages in

soul of my applauding teeth 

& Ray hit bass notes to the last love seat in my bones

I moved in triple time with Max

Grooved high with Diz

Perdidoed with Pettiford

Flew home with Hamp

Shuffled in Dexter’s Deck

Squatty-rooed with Peterson

Dreamed a “52nd Street Theme” with Fats

& scatted “Lady Be Good” with Ella Fitzgerald

as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium

Jazz at the Philharmonic.