“Frusick: Making Sweeter Music” – a short story by J. W. Wood

In the 22nd century, a medical professional takes a bunch of kids to meet one of the last musicians left in England, and has an epiphany when he hears live music for the first time…

The Sunday Poem: “Times Gone By” by Lynn White

They were the best of times.
They were the worst of times.
Or so it is said.

A 2026 jazz poetry calendar

12 individual poets contribute a jazz-themed poem dedicated to a particular month, resulting in a 2026 calendar of jazz poetry that winds through the year with a variety of poetic styles and voices who share their journeys with the music, tying it into the month they were tasked to interpret. Along the way you will encounter the likes of Sonny Stitt, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Wynton Kelly, John Coltrane, and Nina Simone.

A collection of poetic responses to the events of 2025

Forty poets describe their experiences with the tumultuous events of 2025, resulting in a remarkable collection of work made up of writers who may differ on what inspired them to participate, but who universally share a desire for their voice to be heard amid a changing America.

The Sunday Poem: “Caught in a Storm” by Michael L. Newell

Ithought I heard chimes
in the wind calling my name
I swear they claimed I had little time

to open my eyes to the universe
the rain rippled on a nearby tin roof
as though Milt Jackson was part of the storm

Poems by Connie Johnson and Terrance Underwood

I am five years old
Taking a picture of my parents
In front of our lofty (in my eyes!)
Star-spangled tree
The whiff of my dad’s Camel spirals
My mom’s smile is enigmatic
As Nat King Cole’s
“The Christmas Song”
Spins.

“The Music of Lana’i Lookout” – a poem by Robert Alan Felt

The 17th anniversary of president-elect Barack Obama’s scattering of his beloved grandmother’s ashes is at the center of the poem, and serves as a reminder that moral personal character of leadership is what makes a country great.

The Sunday Poem: “Christmas for Bachelors” by Erren Geraud Kelly

charlie brown tree foreshadows
my life, i leave the holiday to kids
but a jazz album plays on youtube
and i imagine dancing with someone

“Now Is The Time” – a poem by Daniel Warren Brown

Of our year so dangerous and extreme
that I’m refreshed by a mixed recording
(formerly a cassette transferred to CD).
Greensleeves by both Desmond and Coltrane,
Roland Kirk’s We Free Kings along with Bessie Smith’s
Christmas Ball. Of course let’s not forget Santa Claus Blues

“A Perfect 10” – a playlist of tentets by Bob Hecht

Bob adds another instrument to his progressive playlist feature, and shares what a variety of arrangers have been able to accomplish writing for a tentet.

On the Turntable: Francis Fernandes, on three favorite jazz recordings released in 2025 by German artists

The poet and Frankfurt, Germany resident Francis Fernandes reports that the jazz scene in the country is a lively one at the moment, which is opening up his ears to some very interesting music.

“Wonderful World” – a poem by Dan Thompson

Dear Louis Armstrong
(Louis Daniel Armstrong) …
The Most Reverend Satchel Mouth …
Gatemouth, Dippermouth, Satchmo, Pops …

After all these years …
all these years of your being in my background,
your presence behind my youthful school days,
behind my dearly departed
boyhood and young-man trumpet teachers –

The Sunday Poem: “Analog” by Susanna Schantz

Sitting inches from your piano
I was struck
by how you ceded
the spotlight to the four winds,
let them explore their cardinal
directions, while you, self-effacingly,

Press Release for “The Weary Blues: Celebrating The Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes”

I recently wrote about a new endeavor of mine – producing a show in Portland celebrating the poetry of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. What follows is the complete press release for the February 7 performance at the Alberta Abbey in Portland, Oregon.

Short Fiction Contest-winning story #70 – “the Sound of Becoming,” by JC Michaels

The story explores the inner life of a young Southeast Asian man as he navigates the tension between Eastern tradition and Western modernity.

Letter from the Editor: “A Jerry Jazz Musician Experience”

Sharing a bit of what I’ve been up to of late, and make you aware of a new endeavor of mine…

"Dorothy Parker, an Icon of the Jazz Age" – a poem by Jane McCarthy

She enters the room like a rimshot,
sharp enough to wake the drunks
dozing at the back table.
A quicksilver crack across the silence.

The Sunday Poem: “One Night in New Orleans” by Rebecca Watkins

In the photograph, I’m leaning against a lamppost.
The Bourbon Street sign above me. A young cliché,
sunburnt, smiling at my boyfriend behind the camera
until the jazz lulled us like tendrils of heat into smokey
bars where horns dipped and flared like my hips, his
hands gripped. The cymbals snapped like June bugs

Memorable Quotes: Horace Greeley, on character

“Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches…”

Jazz History Quiz #185

This posthumously-awarded Grammy winning musician/composer was the pianist and arranger for the vocal group The Hi-Lo’s (pictured) in the late 1950’s, and after working with Donald Byrd and Dizzy Gillespie became known for his Latin and bossa nova recordings in the 1960’s. He was also frequently cited by Herbie Hancock as a “major influence.” Who is he?

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 27: “California Suite”

Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is dedicated to saxophone players and the mood scenes that instrument creates.

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize L (50)

Announcing the six writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize v. L (50), whose work appeared on the web pages of Jerry Jazz Musician or within print anthologies I edited during 2025.

The Sunday Poem: A miniature by Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

jazz fugue –

“Rejoicing” – a poem by Roodly Laurore (translated from French by Jerrice J. Baptiste)

Sound and colors, a phenomenal marriage.
Flows smoothly, amuses nature enthusiasts.
It tells of all the beauty and love.

“Prayer” – a poem by Jianqing Zheng (after a photo by William Ferris)

Dear God,
thank you for your love

and guidance
in my life.

I kneel before you
with a humble question—

Letter from the Editor/Happy Thanksgiving (a redux)

Connecting an old photograph owned since the 1970’s to gratitude for friends, family, artists, creators, website readers and contributors – (a redux)

The Sunday Poem: “Sarah Vaughan Performing” by Arya F. Jenkins

Watching Sarah Vaughan perform “Misty”
live in Sweden in ’64 must have
made some folks wonder about the failed cooling system onstage
that made her perspire so—

A sampling of jazz recordings by artists nominated for 2026 Grammy Awards – a playlist by Martin Mueller

A playlist of 14 songs by the likes of Samara Joy, Brad Mehldau, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Branford Marsalis, the Yellowjackets and other Grammy Award nominees, assembled by Martin Mueller, the former Dean of the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.

21 jazz poems on the 21st of November, 2025

An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems communicating the emotional appeal of jazz music, as well as nods to the likes of Miles Davis, Regina Carter, Maynard Ferguson, Ornette Coleman, and Max Roach.

“With Barry Harris at the 11th Street Bar” – a true jazz story by Henry Blanke

The writer – a lifelong admirer of pianist Barry Harris’ music –  recalls a special experience he had with him in 2015.

Poems on Charlie “Bird” Parker (inspired by a painting by Al Summ) – an ekphrastic poetry collection

A collection of 26 poems inspired by the painting of Charlie Parker by the artist Al Summ.

The Sunday Poem: “Like Joe Zawinul” by Salvatore Difalco

Let me be free in my moment,
free of sharps, free of pricks and dicks,
free of hysterics pulling out their hair
or setting it on fire. And I want to be free
of fifteen second advertisements

“Corkscrew” – a short story by Mike Wilson

The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is about a night when everything goes wrong and everyone is annoying, an unexpected turn of events teaches a sarcastic lawyer that the old adage is true – a cynic is just a disappointed romantic.

The Sunday Poem: “Angel Mouthed Promises” by Saira Viola

The kiss of a cymbal, a whispered SH-BOOM/
A cobalt wing -rose smoked and bruised/
Golden riffs tossed across the sea/
Angel mouthed promises
a breath of HONEY /

“Smoke Rings and Minor Things” – a short story by Jane McCarthy

The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is a meditation on missed chances, minor keys, and the music that outlives the room it was played in.

From the Interview Archive: Travis Atria, author of Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp

In this 2021 interview, the author Travis Atria tells the story of trumpeter Arthur Briggs’s courage in the face of racism and hatred during World War II, when he was arrested in Paris and sent to the Nazi prison camp at St. Denis, France, where he learned to survive the daily horror of his incarceration through the strength of his spirt and the gift of his musical talent.

The Sunday Poem: “Beyond Scale” by Pamela Nocerino

Our love is a jazz trio
in last-set energy
with expanded structures
and smoky-toned fusion.

“November Affair” – a poem (for November) by Jerrice J. Baptiste

As cold settles in the atmosphere, untie the bow of my silk black robe etched with crimson leaves. Soak my skin in an ivory porcelain tub in the middle of the room. Brush my tangled hair.

In Memoriam: “Color Wheels” – a poem (for Jack DeJohnette) by Mary O’Melveny

He painted what he heard in his head
his heart ..his limitless .. timeless soul
each stage an art studio
As if Rothko or Gerhard Richter or Monet
were letting us in on their secrets
warming us as we watched

“my feminine ideal” – a poem by John Hawkins

is a Black woman, carefree, free to care,
with all the right grace notes, bundle of strength,
Amazonian, sexual, and queer
in all the senses, in all the tenses

“Alas, for My Poor Heart” – a short story by Daryl Rothman

The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest – concerns art and its truest meanings—where you just might have to look twice at what the shadow and light of a piece says about that within your soul.

The Sunday Poem: “Dance Naked With Your Poems and Howl at the Lilac Moon” by Namaya

Shakespeare wooed the moonlight
love with his sonnets.

Emily Dickinson took refuge and
inspiration from her gardens.

Rumi communed with poets,
drunks, and street sweepers.

“Swing Landscape” – a poem by Kenneth Boyd

Kenneth Boyd writes poetry based on jazz paintings. “Swing Landscape” is written for a Stuart Davis painting of the same name.

Jazz History Quiz #184

Maurice Ravel (pictured) acknowledged basing his Bolero on an improvisation of this clarinetist, who was also influential in the careers of Benny Goodman and Nat Cole, who made famous this musician’s theme song, “Sweet Lorraine.” Who is he?

21 jazz poems on the 21st of October, 2025

An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems inspired by the late Chuck Mangione, several on other trumpeters, the blues, and nods to Monk, Ornette Coleman,  Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.

The Sunday Poem: “hush for the sax” by j.lewis

hush.
listen to the melody
the undulating voice of pain
too wide for hands to hold
too deep for hell’s own shadows
to mute, to resist

Memorable Quotes: Elie Wiesel, on protest

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice…”

A dispatch from Portland, 2025 – and Boston, 1969

Peaceful protest is nothing new to America. It is happening every day in Portland, where I live. It is what makes our country great. And those of us who grew up in the 1960’s probably have a history of protest – some turning violent – ourselves. The poet Russell Dupont shares text and photos from his experience while photographing the October, 1969 March Against the [Vietnam] War in Boston, when plainclothes Federal officers attempted to confiscate his camera.

“MILESTONES – Poems…With Words…Without Words” by Tony Brinkley

A hybrid piece in which poems and icons (poems without words) interact. The point of departure is Miles Davis’s modal jazz from the 1950s.

“Heroics” – a short story by Michele Herman

The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is about brothers coping with an angry father whose solution for dealing with a family crisis is to take them to a Howard Johnson’s for ice cream.

“Across the Years” – a poem by Terrance Underwood

absent from the domicile
save one
reveling in silence
‘til a choice was made
to turn ON
& tranquility became

The Sunday Poem: “Forest Flower Sunrise/Sunset” by Judith Vaughn

A black orpheus, Charles Lloyd, calls
the sun to waken, to sleep with his horn; music her very source.

She rises in the East, her radiant eyes open the dawn
light, fanfare streams across the land.

Calling All Poets...Submissions guidelines for the anthology “Black History in Poetry”

We are currently seeking poetry from writers of all backgrounds for Black History in Poetry, an anthology scheduled for publication in the Summer of 2026. The anthology will be a means of celebrating and honoring notable Black Americans by offering poetry that teems with imagery, observation, emotion, memory, testimony, insight, impact, and humanity. Our aim is to give readers a way to visualize Black history from a fresh perspective.

Interview with Tad Richards, author of Listening to Prestige: Chronicling its Classic Jazz Recordings, 1949 – 1972

Richards discusses his book – a long overdue history of Prestige Records that draws readers into stories involving its visionary founder Bob Weinstock, the classic recording sessions he assembled, and the brilliant jazz musicians whose work on Prestige helped shape the direction of post-war music.

Jimi Hendrix – in four poems

Purple Haze
was in our brains
all that summer of 68
while Jimi sang,
his hair a dark nimbus
against the shifting lights

Community Bookshelf #5

“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (March, 2025 – September, 2025)

“Look Ma, No Net!” – a playlist of nonets, by Bob Hecht

In this episode of our progressive instrumentation playlists, we add a ninth instrument to the mix to form a Nonet!

“Still Wild” – a collection of poems by Connie Johnson

Connie Johnson’s unique and warm vernacular is the framework in which she reminds readers of the foremost contributors of jazz music, while peeling back the layers on the lesser known and of those who find themselves engaged by it, and affected by it.  I have proudly published Connie’s poems for over two years and felt the consistency and excellence of her work deserved this 15 poem showcase.

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 15: High Spirits-Dark Laughter-Absurdity

A substantial number of novels and stories with jazz music as a component of the story have been published over the years, and the scholar David J. Rife has written short essay/reviews of them. In this 14th edition featuring excerpts from his outstanding literary resource, Rife writes about stories whose themes include High Spirits, Dark Laughter, and Absurdity

“Escalator Over the Hill – Then and Now” – by Joel Lewis

Remembering the essential 1971 album by Carla Bley/Paul Haines, inspired by the writer’s experience attending the New School’s recent performance of it

War. Remembrance. Walls. The High Price of Authoritarianism – by editor/publisher Joe Maita

An essay inspired by my recent experiences witnessing the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation of several World War II concentration camps in Germany.