Baraka, Cortez, Waldman, Giorno

RE Cortez: Consider the influence of jazz on Cortez's poetry; "Jazz Fans Look Back," for eg, though this can apply to other poems, as well: How is the poem Jazz-like? The thing to do is to look "Back" carefully at some of the images, esp. in stanza 2, to see how jazz effects the poem's imagery, rhythms, and structure, and how the poem represents, through its imagery and relationships among images, rhythms and tones, the complexity of jazz, its pain, defiance, and vibrancy. "Wailed," "Screamed," "rebellious metronomes," "militant messages," "Embedded record needles in paint on paper," as well as a kind of screaming laughter like "high-pitched" sax riffs and the implied impact of jazz on speech (think of the writing of this poem) as a product of "infatuated tongues"; contrasted with images such as wearing a Holiday flower, and Ray hitting "bass notes to the last love seat in my bones": how do such images suggest the power and impact of jazz in the 50s-70s, the way it "blew roof off" off conventional music, but also impacted (continues to impact, as the speaker "look[s] back") the attitude and mood of the listener? (Recall also the critical comments from last wk on Hughes' "Harlem," which also comment on the connection between jazz and the militant attitude of some of Hughes' work.). Consider also how the power and aggressiveness of the music is a means of giving voice to African-American experience--not just speaking, in Cortez's poem, but "wailing," screaming, screeching out...



YouTube "Bebop" and a tune like Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" to get a sense of the music



On the blogs:



RE Waldman, on "Blogs from Previous Classes" (6th set down): see Diana A's blog and my comments, and the discussion taking place there, and Stephen's blog and my comments;



Cortez: my comments on Andrea's, Richard's and Rosemarie's blogs;



Baraka: my comments on Baruch's and Debora's blogs;



Giorno: my comments on Diana K's blog.



As always, see study sheets/exercises on Bb for these three..







More to come..