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Yama by Lee Morgan with Blakey's Jazz Mess

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Yama by Lee Morgan with Blakey's Jazz Mess

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Art Blakey - Drums
Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Wayne Shorter - Tenor Saxophone
Bobby Timmons - Piano
Jymie Merritt - Bass

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
“A Night In Tunisia”
Blue Note Records (1960)

Morgan’s “Yama” Jazz Mess

(Lee Morgan is said, by a commenter on this posted recording, to have dedicated his composition to  Japanese wife Kiko Yamamoto)

If you could get into saxophonist

Wayne Shorter's musical head

what could you find?

Dude's been playing stuff

a long life's worth.

But you can.

On his Facebook page he recommended "Yama,"

little something he played with

now passed masterful collaborators

six decades back: Morgan, Timmons, Merritt,  Blakey.

Shorter thought this outing

was sorta cool, what they did

doing time at

the university of buhaina blakey.

And to think he played this

with them nightly for a while,

when all we have is this one

measly take.

The definition of music

somebody literarily

wants to call 'jazz.'

Sounds

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Though he is California born and raised, Tom Waits rejected hippy culture as a young adult, describing himself as  a "rebel against the rebels." Instead Beat poetry attracted him. His earlier years' output was more jazz-oriented in style, as this selection from a 1976 album Small Change demonstrates. He's playing with Jim Hughart (bass), Shelly Manne (drums) and Lew Tabackin (tenor sax). One generous commenter Mr. Wace, wrote out Waits' lyrics to sing along. "Step Right Up"

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My mentor in his younger days, ted joans (July 4, 1928 – April 25, 2003) performing with a quartet in Amsterdam Holland  in 1964. Musicians Piet Kuiters (piano), Herman Schoonderwalt (sax), Ruud Jacobs (bass), and  Cees See (drums) are playing the blues.

Between January-April 2015, Cecil R. Carter, musician & educator, and I presented a workshop for poets to learn how to how to communicate with musicians. This “stART Playing Poetricity” course focused on learning how to count off, and hear the 12-bar blues form. Then we wrote and practiced reading our original poem to fit that form.

Studying tedjoans was one assignment. We asked the poets to analyze the interactions between ted and his band members while reading. We expected them to put themselves in the poet’s place, and say anything else they noted about performance parameters. We wanted saturation in the response, not a simple like-dislike type of reaction. This meant watching the video several times.

I invite you to do the same now, if you are so inclined.

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Langston Hughes III: "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods For Jazz"

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Langston Hughes III: "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods For Jazz"

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But Langston's planned project with Mingus was not irrevocably lost. Fortunately for us, Dr. Ronald C. McCurdy, musician/composer and scholar, discovered Hughes’ annotated manuscript. While teaching at the University of Minnesota, Ron had been commissioned to create a piece about the Harlem Renaissance for the opening of a Romare Bearden exhibit at the Weisman Art Museum there. Ron chose Hughes' twelve-part epic poem notated with musical cues  drawn from blues and Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop, progressive jazz, Latin “cha cha,” Afro-Cuban mambo music, German lieder, Jewish liturgy, West Indian calypso, and African drumming. Dr. McCurdy interpreted the cues, completed the unfinished music project, and created an associated multimedia presentation. Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz consists of videography that connects Hughes’ words to topical images of people, places and events he referenced, played  live with music combo and recitation. The premiere performance in Minnesota was so well received that Ron’s been touring with it for more than 20 years, and has released the work on CD. Ask Your Mama, videorecorded live, can be found in its entirety on YouTube. Here's a taste:

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It’s common knowledge among jazz aficionadoes that Charles Mingus is a top echelon composer and bass player. Mingus is also known as an initiator of fruitful group sessions with a number of word workers, as well as being a poet himself. Naturally, he'd work with Langston Hughes during his poetic heyday. From the B Side of the LP Weary Blues, recorded 3-17-1958, Langston is reading a portion of his renowned "dream deferred" poem. This collaboration with Langston very much defined excellence in the genre of jazz poetry early on, as the two of them paired Mingus’ complex original compositions, rather than the simpler blues heard on the album's flipside.

Following their successful collaboration, the pair made plans to work on another serious work. Langston wrote the poetry, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz, and annotated his manuscript with musical ideas to run by Mingus and pianist Randy Weston. But Langston passed before they had a chance to record it.

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Langston Hughes and Charles Mingus  -  Same In Blues/Comment On Curb

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Langston Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance group of poets in New York in the 1920s. But his work spanned decades, including the Beat era of 1950s Greenwich Village. My mentor, tedjoans, knew him there and considered Langston both a friend and his poetic “father,” as did many other writers.

This clip, “Blues Montage,” features Langston reading a couple of his own poems, from the LP Weary Blues, recorded 3-17-1958. For digital-aged listeners, LPs (short for “long playing” vinyl recordings) had sides, and flipsides. On this A Side, the band organized by producer Leonard Feather consisted of Milt Hinton (bass); Sam Taylor (clarinet & tenor sax); Osie Johnson (drums); Al Williams (piano); Vic Dickinson (trombone); and Red Allen (trumpet). On the flipside, Langston's backup band was the then current Jazz Workshop aggregation led by bassist/composer Charles Mingus.

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The Cadence of MLK's Eulogy Inspired Coltrane’s “Alabama”

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The Cadence of MLK's Eulogy Inspired Coltrane’s “Alabama”

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On Sept. 15, 1963, Ku Klux Klan-affiliated terrorists in Birmingham, Alabama firebombed the 16th Street Baptist Church while Sunday School was in session. Four Black children were killed, other congregants injured. This vicious response occurred a few weeks after the 8-28-1963 March on Washington. There, in Dr. M.L. King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, he envisioned black and white children playing together in brotherhood. White Racist Purists replied, “Over your dead bodies.”

Saxophonist/composer John Coltrane memorialized this incident in his song “Alabama.” In this video excerpt from a radio special, “Tell Me How Long Trane’s Been Gone” radio journalist Steve Rowland documents a speculation that one of Coltrane’s compositional influences was the cadence of the eulogy Dr. King delivered at the girls’ funeral. I find this extraordinary, a further, subtle example of the innovative ways Black music and words can resonate with each other.

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"Alabama" John Coltrane and Martin Luther King

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Another noted vocalese wordsmith was Eddie Jefferson, who later turned Moody's 1949 solo on the 1935 Frances Langford melody into a luscious love song, "Moody's Mood for Love." King Pleasure's 1954 recording gained the more widespread popularity, after he obtained Jefferson's permission to record it first. Since then it's been covered by many crooners, including Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones' collaborators (Take 6, Rachelle Ferrell and Brian McKnight), and even Amy Winehouse.

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James Moody featuring Eddie Jefferson - Moody's Mood For Love

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"I'm in the Mood for Love" James Moody's original mood

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"I'm in the Mood for Love" James Moody's original mood

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James Moody played the original instrumental version of "I'm in the Mood for Love" in Stockholm Oct. 12, 1949. Also on this recording with the alto saxophonist were Leppe Sundewall, trumpet; Thore Swanerud, piano; Yngve Akerberg, bass; and Anders Burman, drums. Such a shame that Europeans were (and still are) so much more appreciative of Black American musicians than U.S. residents.

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James Moody- I'm in the Mood for Love (aka Moody's Mood for Love)

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Amiri Baraka has been internationally acknowledged as a stellar Black poet ever since his work was first published under the name LeRoi Jones. Ofttimes he is the only African-American poet to appear in English language anthologies of American literature. Baraka was also an authoritative commentator on both Black musical and vocal expressions. He was elevated as Poet Laureate of New Jersey (2002–2003) but controversy surrounded his public performances of the 9/11 themed poem "Somebody Blew Up America." Because no legal mechanism existed to remove Baraka from the post, the position of state poet laureate was officially abolished by the State Legislature and Governor Jim McGreevey after the first year of his anticipated 2 year tenure.

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"I'm in the Mood for Love" James Moody's original mood

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"I'm in the Mood for Love" James Moody's original mood

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James Moody played the original instrumental version of "I'm in the Mood for Love" in Stockholm Oct. 12, 1949. Also on this recording with the alto saxophonist were Leppe Sundewall, trumpet; Thore Swanerud, piano; Yngve Akerberg, bass; and Anders Burman, drums. Such a shame that Europeans were (and still are) so much more appreciative of Black American musicians than U.S. residents.

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James Moody- I'm in the Mood for Love (aka Moody's Mood for Love)

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Another noted vocalese wordsmith was Eddie Jefferson, who later turned Moody's 1949 solo on the 1935 Frances Langford melody into a luscious love song, "Moody's Mood for Love." King Pleasure's 1954 recording gained the more widespread popularity, after he obtained Jefferson's permission to record it first. Since then it's been covered by many crooners, including Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Queen Latifah, Quincy Jones' collaborators (Take 6, Rachelle Ferrell and Brian McKnight), and even Amy Winehouse.

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James Moody featuring Eddie Jefferson - Moody's Mood For Love

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Writing lyrics for an existing melody written by someone else is a bit different from writing vocalese, in that recorded solos are not involved. In the case of "Up Jumped Spring," this melody was originally composed by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard. Abby, a singer, admired it and wanted to sing it, so she wrote these words. She's singing them with saxophonist Stan Getz, on an album from 1991, You Gotta Pay the Band. Lincoln and Getz, who passed away a few months later, are backed by Hank Jones (piano), Charlie Haden (bass), and Mark Johnson (drums).

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Abbey Lincoln feat. Stan Getz - "Up Jumped Spring"

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Annie’s tale reveals presciently feminist thinking for the post World War II period in which it was written. I believe that is what attracted Joni Mitchell, a singer/poet with a similar vocal range and attitude, to cover it in 1974, popularizing it two decades after it was first released. In this clip from 1959, Annie sings it herself at Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion,  during one of Hef’s legendary star-studded TV parties. An assemblage of the top jazz musicians of the day can be seen and heard, including a young listener named Tony Bennett. Count Basie tickles the ivories with the singer from his acclaimed orchestra, Joe Williams joining the trio of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross to sing "Every Day I Have the Blues" later in the clip. Jon wrote these lyrics for the LHR debut album Sing a Song of Basie.

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ANNIE ROSS sings Twisted and Everyday I Have The Blues 1959

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The vocalese lyrics Jon Hendricks wrote for Clifford Brown’s composition “Joy Spring” are under-appreciated as poetry. IMHO Jon was gypped by not being elevated to US Poet Laureate while he was alive. His poem duplicated closely the melody and solos played by saxophonist Harold Land and Clifford himself on trumpet. Jon added surprising references to Shakespeare and the Brothers Grimm in his tale about spirituality and reincarnation. Let’s listen first to Clifford’s version, with his flighty, double timed trumpet solo that everybody loves.

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Manhattan Transfer hired Jon as the primary lyricist for their 1985 album for Atlantic Records, called Vocalese. They wanted to sing 12 masterful jazz instrumentals, including Clifford Brown’s song, with words called "Sing Joy Spring." I can imagine Jon, a singer himself, might have coached the four where and how to breathe to get through those double-timed horn passages. Having this seasoned performer as adviser/collaborator got Manhattan Transfer 8 Grammy nominations and 2 winners: Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group, and Best Arrangement for Voices.

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Annie Ross was one of Jon's bandmates in "The Hottest New Group in Jazz" in the 1950s, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Annie also wrote vocalese. In the case of her most well known piece, "Twisted," for her friend saxophonist Wardell Gray, Annie decorated his melody, solo and coda with words. Wardell played this: