The poet Kenneth Rexroth claimed that the first time poetry was recited to a jazz accompaniment was in the early 1920s at an underground club in Chicago called The Green Mask. Later, Rexroth moved to the San Francisco area. He introduced the Beat poets to the collaboration between jazz musicians and poets.
The Poetry Slam scene often included jazz accompaniment and its founder, Marc Smith performs with The Last Word Quintet.
Working with the A-Frame/Percussion Logic group, headed by Loyd Warden, I have been writing and performing spoken word with jazz musicians in Columbia, MO.
On the formal level, my procedure is to scan the melodic lines of the head and bridge (A & B) of a tune, and translate those lines of musical meter into poetry. On the semantic level, my lyrical explorations are sometimes interpretations, expressions, explanations, and personal responses to the music.
Click on the title to navigate to lyrics, artwork, and a downloadable pdf.
- Maiden Voyage, Herbie Hancock
A lyrical response to a lyrical tune. Notes include Greek Prosody and the poetry of the Tang Chinese poet Tu Fu. - So What, Miles Davis
“Miles and Mephistopheles” An imagined conversation between Miles Davis and a frustrated Mephistopheles at a crossroads at midnight. - All Blues, Miles Davis
“Chicago Noir” Memories of Chicago inspired by the Miles tune. - After the Rain, John Coltrane
At the end of his liner notes to A Love Supreme, John Coltrane writes, “May we never forget that in the sunshine of our lives, through the storm and after the rain – it is all with God – in all ways and forever.” “After the Rain” is the last song on Impressions and a preparation for the spiritual sublimity of A Love Supreme. I wrote lyrics as to a song of worship and praise. The words came to me while hiking in Missouri just as a spell of rain broke a long drought. - Passion Dance, McCoy Tyner
“Comings and Goings” The dynamics of Tyner’s composition calls to mind the comings and goings of sub-atomic particles in a bubble chamber. - Little Suede Shoes, Charlie Parker
A tribute to Charlie Parker and the result of a study of the presence of birds in ancient literature, and before. Incidentally, some believe that Parker picked up on the Afro rhythm of the tune while in Paris. - Fungii Mamma, Blue Mitchell
“Percussion Lesson” A meditation on musical composition tracing the variations of the clave rhythm across the Americas.
Mike Barrett Archive 