A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition

December 16th, 2022

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The Artist

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Keith Mallett is an American  painter, etcher, and ceramic  artist  whose subject  matter ranges from figurative to abstract. His work has been exhibited worldwide and is featured in corporate and private collections. He has enjoyed considerable success with numerous sold-out limited-edition prints, and was commissioned to craft the official limited-edition print commemorating the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough into major league baseball. In 2017 as guest artist, he created the Google doodle celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. Keith has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award. His clients include: Simon & Shuster, Random House, Farrar Straus Giroux, Harper Collins, Lee & Low, Charlesbridge, and Bradford Exchange, among others.

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Poet biographies are listed in alphabetical order

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Poet and musician Michael D. Amitin, originally from California, traveled the roads of the American West before settling in Paris, France where he now lives. Recently named International Beat Poet Laureate 2020-2021, Amitin’s poems have been published in California Quarterly, Poetry Pacific, North of Oxford. Love Love Magazine. and others. A current collaboration with Parisian photographer Julie Peiffer has given rise to the “Riverlights” project, and can be found at Riverlights.art

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Geer Austin’s poetry has appeared in Poet Lore, Fjords Review, Main Street Rag, BlazeVOX, Neuro Logical Magazine and others, and his fiction has appeared in A/U Magazine, the podcast A Story Most Queer and elsewhere. He is the author of Cloverleaf, a poetry chapbook (Poets Wear Prada Press). He lives in New York City. .

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Amy Barone’s poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books published her book, We Became Summer. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing).  Barone belongs to the Poetry Society of America. She lives in NYC.

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Stephen Bett is an internationally-known Canadian poet who has had 23 books of poetry and one book of non-fiction published. His earlier work is known for its sassy, edgy, hip, caustic wit―indeed, for the askance look of the serious satirist… skewering what he calls the ‘vapid monoculture’ of our times. His more recent books have been described as incredible accomplishments for their authentic minimalist subtlety. Many are tightly sequenced book-length ‘serial’ poems, which allow for a rich echoing of cadence and image, building a wonderfully subtle, nuanced music. He is recently retired after a 31-year teaching career largely at Langara College in Vancouver, and now lives with his wife Katie in Victoria, BC. Click here to visit his website.

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Byron Beynon‘s work has been featured in several publications including Black Fox Literary Magazine, The London Magazine, Wasafiri, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Wales and the human rights anthology In Protest (University of London and Keats House Poets). Also in several collections including The Echoing Coastline (Agenda) and Where Shadows Stir (The Seventh Quarry Press).

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R. Bremner has been writing of incense, peppermints, and the color of time since the 1960s. He appeared in the legendary first issue of Passaic Review in 1979, which also featured Allen Ginsberg, and in International Poetry Review, Paterson Literary Review, Sigmund Freud in Poetry, Anthem: a Leonard Cohen Tribute Anthology, and more. Ron has published eight books of poetry, including Absurd (Absurdist poetry from Cajun Mutt Press) and Hungry Words (Alien Buddha Press).

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Daniel Brown has loved jazz (and music in general) ever since he delved into his parents’ 78 collection as a child. He is a retired special education teacher who began writing as a senior. He always appreciates being published in a journal or anthology. His first poetry collection, Family Portraits in Verse, will be published in early 2023.

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Patricia Carragon’s poem “Paris the Beautiful” won Poem of the Week from great weather for MEDIA. Her fiction piece “What Has to Happen Next” is nominated for Sundress Publications Annual Best of the Net Anthology. Her latest book from Poets Wear Prada is Meowku. Her debut novel, Angel Fire, was recently released by Alien Buddha Press. Patricia hosts Brownstone Poets and is the editor-in-chief of its annual anthology. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Molly Larson Cook is an award-winning Oregon writer, writing coach, and artist. In 2016, she received the first Steve Kowit Poetry Prize in a national competition. Molly was a Fellow at the Fishtrap Writers Conference in Oregon where she worked with poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Molly’s jazz novel, Listen, was published in a limited edition in 2003. Her “Colors of Jazz” paintings are at mollylarsoncookpaintings.wordpress.com.

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Brooklyn-born Arlene Corwin is in her late 80’s, and is a harpist, pianist and singer – a jazz musician forever. She earned her BA at Hofstra Univ. She has published 19 poetry books. In the 1950s her mother owned a jazz club in Hempstead, Long Island with Slim Gaillard. She currently lives in Sweden.

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Russell duPont is an artist and an author whose artwork is included in a number of public and private collections. He has published two novels, King & Train and Waiting for the Turk; two books of poetry; and two non-fiction chapbooks. His essay, “The Corner,” is included in the anthology Streets of Echoes. His work has been published in various newspapers and literary magazines. He was the founder & publisher of the literary magazine,.the albatross.

Visit his website by clicking here

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Victor Enns reads and writes poetry and fiction. He lives in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada.  His poems have appeared in Canadian publications and including Rattle (print) and Shot Glass Journal (online) in the U.S. His most memorable performance this century was a mainly Mingus show led by Toronto bassist David Young (originally from Winnipeg) with an eight piece band at the Rex in Toronto.

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debora Ewing is a prolific poet, artist, songwriter, and ruiner of peace for the greater good. She’s also a peer reviewer for  Consilience Science-based Poetry Journal  and Global Content Editor for  Igneus Press, but she is not The Cool Mom. Find her work at  Dodging the Rain, Beyond Words, San Pedro River Review, Jerry Jazz Musician, and elsewhere. Deb posts serial fiction at  debnation.com

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(Debora’s short story “Coloring Outside the Lines” was the first winning story in the Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest, published in October of 2002.  The contest is currently in its 62nd edition).

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photo Jennifer Lindberg

Editor-in-chief for From the Ashes (Arts & Literature 1990-1994) and Swivel: Vintage Living (vintage lifestyle 1994-2000), Tam Francis has also been a poet (two-time, National Poetry Slam city team, Scottsdale Center for the Arts Poetry Art Walk Featured Poet, New Times Feature Poet, Visual Voices Featured Writer) and short story wordsmith (two-time shortlisted for Scare the Dickens Out of Us contest). Published in Texas Writer’s Journal, Short Edition, Coffeelicious, Awakenings, Red Dog Journal, Spoken Word from Lalapalooza, and other digital and print magazines.

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Joel Glickman taught music including jazz history and the jazz band at Northland College, Ashland Wisconsin, from 1974 until retirement in 2017, where he has resumed teaching about jazz again, part time. He has written and published poetry over a wide range of subjects. Primarily a classical clarinetist and folk singer-song writer and banjo player, his jazz and saxophone skills lag behind these. He resides in Ashland with wife Susan and their Bichon, Madeline.

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James Higgins was born in Texas, and currently lives in Oregon. He has had poems that placed or won in Oregon Poetry Assn. contests, and while he has not submitted poetry in many years, he is now seriously pursuing publication. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon, where he studied poetry with Ralph Salisbury, and earned a BA in English literature. His work has appeared in Terra Incognita, Beyond Words, and Jerry Jazz Musician.

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Sean Howard is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Unrecovered: 9/11 Poems (Gaspereau Press, Canada, 2021). Sean’s poetry has been widely published in Canada, the US, UK, and elsewhere, and featured in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2017). Sean is adjunct professor of political science at Cape Breton University, and writes a monthly ‘War & Peace’ column for the Cape Breton Spectator.

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Recently retired from nearly 40 years of teaching college writing, literature, and peace studies, D. R. James lives, writes, bird-watches, cycles, and incessantly listens to jazz with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan. His latest of ten collections are Mobius Trip and Flip Requiem (Dos Madres Press, 2021, 2020), and his prose and poems have appeared internationally in a wide variety of print and online anthologies and journals. https://www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage

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D. H. Jenkins’ plays have been staged in California, Arizona, Australia, and Japan.  His poems appear in the art films “Call From a Distant Shore” and “Our Autumn,” and in  The Tiger Moth Review and  Jerry Jazz Musician.

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Dr. Emory D. Jones is a retired English teacher who has taught in high school and in several community colleges. He has seven hundred eighty-six credits including publication in such journals as Writers Digest, and Encore: Journal of the NFSPS.  He lives with his wife in Iuka, Mississippi.

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photo by Jim Whitcraft

George Kalamaras is former Poet Laureate of Indiana (2014– 2016) and Professor Emeritus at Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he taught for thirty-two years. He has published twenty collections of poetry, twelve full-length books and eight chapbooks.

 

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Erren Kelly

Erren Kelly is a three-time Pushcart nominated poet from Boston whose work has appeared in 300 publications (print and online), including Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine, Ceremony, Cacti Fur, Bitterzoet, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, .and .Poetry Salzburg.

Click here to read “Under Quarantine” — COVID-era poetry of Erren Kelly, published by Jerry Jazz Musician

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Gloria Krolak is the host of Good Vibes, the first and only broadcast radio program featuring the vibraphone. She was also Poetry Editor at Jersey Jazz, the journal of the New Jersey Jazz Society.  In 2019 she created Jazz Lines, a book of free verse built entirely of jazz tune titles, with photos by the late Ed Berger. In her poem,  “And in Vibraphone News…” she builds instead with album titles. Her website is www.gloriajazz.com

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Catherine Lee is a widely published neo-Beat who reads solo and performs with improvising musicians “on poem” when she can. Joint gigs with her mentor, poet/hipster tedjoans in 1986-87 got her started on this journey. Lots of multimedia poetry, documentary videos, and radio specials are archived on Soundcloud and VIMEO. Lee’s artistic profile is located at GetCreativeSanAntonio and she can be reached at Jazz-Ovation-Inn.com.

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When Diane Lefer is not writing about music, she’s written fiction about scientists who become terrorism suspects (in Out of Place) and baboons with broken hearts (in Confessions of a Carnivore), both novels published by Fomite Press. More at dianelefer.weebly.com

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Aurora M. Lewis is a retiree, having worked in finance for 40 years. In her fifties she received a Certificate in Creative Writing-General Studies with Honors from UCLA. Aurora’s recent poems, short stories, and nonfiction were accepted by The Literary Hatchet, Jerry Jazz Musician, The Copperfield Review, and Gemini Magazine, to name a few. She self-published her first book, Jazz Poems, Reflections on a Broken Heart in 2021 and it is available on Amazon.

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Laurinda Lind lives in New York’s North Country, next door to Canada. Some of her writing is in Blue Earth Review, New American Writing, Paterson Literary Review, and Spillway. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee.

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Phil Linz was born in Brooklyn, NY and has lived in several cities across the United States. He began writing poetry in 1971 and is founder and publisher of Fierce Grace Press, which specializes in chapbooks, believing in the concept of “Publishing Under the Radar.”.His new book, The Chapbooks: Collected Poems, is available on Amazon.

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Elliott Martin is a bass guitarist, historian, and poet in Richmond, Virginia. He loves jazz, blues, and all things rock, and has played guitar and bass in several bands on stages large and small. His poetry has appeared on Jerry Jazz Musician and in The Copperfield Review; Artemis Journal; Amedment Literary and Art Journal, and elsewhere, and his short fiction is forthcoming in Cirsova and The Copperfield Review.

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c.m. mattison has read and written poetry since age 13.  Edgar Allen Poe’s  The Raven, William Blake’s  Love’s Secret, and the music of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Marc Cohn enthralled her. She tries to, in some small way, match their rhythm and grace with her style, giving voice to the abused woman-child who saw the wonder of the world.  She resides in northwestern Wisconsin with her husband and two cats.

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Jessica Lee McMillan is a poet who expects to be buried under her shelves of books and records. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Blank Spaces, Pocket Lint, Pinhole Poetry, Rat’s Ass Review, Tiny Spoon, The South Shore Review, Dream Pop Journal, and Blue Heron Review, among others. Jessica lives in New Westminster, British Columbia. She can be reached at https://twitter.com/JessicaLeeMcM

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Robert Milby of Florida, New York has been reading his poetry in public, since March, 1995. He is the author of several chapbooks, books, and CDs of poetry. He won first prize of $500 in the Orchard Street Press (Gates Mills, OH) Malovrh-Fenlon national poetry contest in June, 2022, for his poem, “Beethoven’s 9th Sonata.”  Milby served as Orange County, NY Poet Laureate from 2017- 2019.

www.robertmilbypoetry.com

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Marilyn Mohr is the author of two chapbooks,  Satchel and Running The Track,  and has recent work included in the anthologies Brownstone Poets, Fractured Hearts and Poets On The Verge.  She lives and writes in West Orange , New Jersey.

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Sean Murphy has appeared on NPR’s “All Things Considered” as well as in USA Today, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and AdAge. A long-time columnist for PopMatters, his work has also appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, The Good Men Project, Memoir Magazine, and others. He has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his chapbook, The Blackened Blues, is now available from Finishing Line Press. To learn more, visit seanmurphy.net

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Michael L. Newell’s most recent book is Don’t Fret (Jazz Poems), published by (www.cyberwit.net). Newell lives in Florida.

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Mary K O’Melveny, retired labor rights lawyer, lives with her wife near Woodstock, NY and Washington DC. Mary’s award-nominated poetry appears in print and on-line literary journals, anthologies and national blog sites. Mary has authored three poetry collections: A Woman of a Certain Age, Merging Star Hypotheses and Dispatches From The Memory Care Museum and co-authored two anthologies: An Apple In Her Hand and Rethinking The Ground Rules. Visit her web site at https://www.marykomelvenypoet.com

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Martha Patterson’s short story collection Small Acts of Magic was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Other work has been published in more than 20 anthologies and journals, and her plays have been produced in 21 states and eight countries. She has two degrees in Theatre, from Mount Holyoke College and Emerson College, and lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She loves being surrounded by her books, radio, and laptop.

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photo Roger Gordy

Steve Paul, a onetime jazz DJ and critic, retired from daily journalism after a career of more than 40 years and segued into literary and cultural biography. He’s the author of Hemingway at Eighteen (Chicago Review Press, 2017) and a forthcoming biography of the writer Evan S. Connell. His occasional columns on jazz topics appear in KC Studio, a regional arts magazine.

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After having taught middle and high school English for 32 years, Marianne Peel is now nurturing her own creative spirit. She has spent three summers in Guizhou Province, teaching best practices to teachers in China. She received Fulbright-Hays Awards to Nepal (2003) and Turkey (2009). Marianne participated in Marge Piercy’s Juried Intensive Poetry Workshop (2016). Marianne’s poetry appears in Muddy River Poetry Review, Belle Reve Literary Journal, Jelly Bucket Journal, among others. Marianne is also a veteran musician, playing flute/sax and singing in various orchestras, bands, choirs, and jazz bands her whole life. She has a collection of poetry forthcoming from Shadelandhouse Modern Press.

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Carrie Magness Radna is a librarian, an Associate Editor of Brownstone Poets, a singer and a poet who loves traveling. She is this year’s Third Prize Winner of Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition (Rhyming Poetry) and was recently nominated for the 2023 Pushcart Prize. Her latest poetry collection, “Shooting myself in the dark”, will be published by Cajun Mutt Press in early 2023. Born in Norman, Oklahoma, she lives in New York City.

https://carriemagnessradna.com

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Bernard  Saint  is a U.K. poet who has published in U.K. and United States literary magazines since the 1960’s. He is a regular contributor to International Times. His most recent book is ROMA, published by Smokestack Books. He worked as a therapist and supervisor in the U.K. National Health Service in psychiatry and in addiction recovery.

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photo by Mya Smbg

Moe Seager is a poet and jazz & blues vocalist who sings his poems on stages in Paris, New York and elsewhere, and has recorded two jazz-poetry CD’s. Seager founded and hosts “Angora Poets World Caffé,” in Paris, and now hosts the event on Zoom. He also hosts “100 Thousand Poets for Change,” Paris and is one of the coordinators for le Fédération des Poètes, Paris. He has six collections of poetry and currently publishes with Onslaught press, Oxford, U.K. Other poetry collections include Dream Bearers (1990); One World, (2004); We Want Everything in French translation (1994); Perhaps (2006); Fishermen and Pool Sharks Busking (1992). 

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Sarah Sarai is author of That Strapless Bra in Heaven (Kelsay Books) and The Future Is Happy (BlazeVOX), with poems in Boston Review, Threepenny Review, The Southampton Review, Okay Donkey, and many other journals. She was born in a former speakeasy on Long Island and grew up in the sleaze of Paul Thomas Anderson’s San Fernando Valley. She works as an independent editor in N.Y.C.

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Bill Siegel lives in the Boston MA area, and writes both prose and poetry to express his love of jazz. Bill’s work appears in Indigenous Pop: Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop (Univ of Arizona Press, 2016); AllAboutJazz.com; inmotionmagazine.com; International Poetry Review; Brilliant Corners; Blue Mesa Review: Cruzando Fronteras (Crossing Borders); and other publications. He also created and manages jimpepperlives.wordpress.com, a collection of articles, poetry and news celebrating the work of the late saxophonist, Jim Pepper.

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Christopher D. Sims is a writer of poetry, a spoken word artist, and a human rights activist who uses words to inform. Born and raised on the west side of Rockford, Illinois, he has been writing since he was nine years old. A published poet, Christopher wrote a poetry and memoir collection entitled I was Born and Raised in The Rock in 2020. He is a fellow of the Intercultural Leadership Institute.

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Dr. Roger Singer was in private practice for 38 years in upstate New York. He has four children, Abigail, Caleb, Andrew and Philip and seven grandchildren. Dr. Singer has served on multiple committees for the American Chiropractic Association, lecturing at colleges in the United States, Canada and Australia, and has authored over fifty articles for his profession and served as a medical technician during the Vietnam era. Dr. Singer is the Poet Laureate of Old Lyme, Connecticut. He has had over 1,070 poems published on the Internet, magazines and in books and is a 2017 Pushcart Prize Award Nominee. He is also the President of the Shoreline Chapter of the Connecticut Poetry Society.

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M. G. Stephens is author of 27 books, most recently the novels King Ezra and Kid Coole (both published by Spuyten Duyvil in 2022), and History of Theatre or the Glass of Fashion, prose poems and poetry (MadHat Press, 2021). Forthcoming in 23: Ornithology, poems (Finishing Line Press) and Jesus’ Dog, stories, from Paycock Press.

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Chuck Sweetman’s career in jazz lasted for six weeks of lessons on the sax, but jazz remains a key source of inspiration. He is senior editor for december magazine. His essays, stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in such places as Verse Daily, River Styx, Poet Lore, Black Warrior Review, and Notre Dame Review. His chapbook of poems, Incorporated, won the 2007 Dream Horse Press Chapbook Prize and was consolidated into the book Enterprise, Inc. (2008)

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Steve Trenam is currently teaching a poetry writing class as part of the Santa Rosa Junior College Older Adults Program, and is partially responsible for the formation of Poetic License Sonoma, an eight-member gathering of local poets who conduct Zoom readings once a month with the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. He is the author of An Affront to Gravity, published by Blue Light Press.  Some of his poetry and ceramic art can be found in an ekphrastic poetry book titled, Canyon, River, Stone and Light, and in  Pandemic Puzzle Poems,  both published by Blue Light Press, 2021. Other poems appear in Crossroads, the Redwood Writers poetry anthology published in May 2022.

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Laura Trigg is a retired physician, jazz and blues fan of many years, and amateur poet. Her poems are influenced by the music and culture of the American South.

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Lawrence Ullian is a novice writer of poems who loves jazz music. Now retired in  Florida, he was an adult educator specializing in training design, program development, and grant writing for both public and non-profit organizations. He also directed training departments for a variety of health care institutions. 

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photo by Jack Underwood

Terrance Underwood is a retired Rolls-Royce Service Engineer, veteran, College Grad (B.A. History) who has been listening to recorded jazz music since he was 5-6 yrs old. One of his first memories is listening to a 78 version of “Cherokee” by Charlie Barnett.

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Judith Vaughn lives in Sonoma, California. She attended New York City College, John F. Kennedy University, and Dominican University. She is a member of PoeticLicenseSonoma who read their poetry the 4th Tuesday of each month at Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Publications: First Literary Review-East an online literary publication, 2020, 2022; Oak Leaf News, a student publication at SRJC, Santa Rosa, CA; Jerry Jazz Musician; Crossroads, Redwood Writers’ 2022 poetry anthology; and Moonlight and Reflections, Nine Sonoma Poets, Valley of the Moon Press.

She is also a photographer. Photo images: 500px.com/judithjudith1

https://judithjudith.tumblr.com

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Anthony Ward chooses to write because he has no choice. He writes to get rid of himself and lay his thoughts to rest. He derives most of his inspiration from listening to classical music and jazz since it is often the mood which inspires him. He has recently been published in Jerry Jazz Musician, Synchronized Chaos, Literary Yard, Mad Swirl, Shot Glass Journal and Ariel Chart.

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Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Inspired by nature and human nature, as well as by music of all sorts, her poetry has appeared previously in Jerry Jazz Musician as well as in many other journals and anthologies, both online and in print. 

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Ed Werstein is a Regional VP of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. In 2018 he received the Lorine Niedecker Prize from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. Communique: Poems From the Headlines (Water’s Edge Press, 2021) is Ed’s fourth collection. A book of poems about his childhood, Benediction & Baseball (Fireweed, 2018), won prizes from the WFOP and from America’s Bookfest. More at edwerstein.com.

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Emmett Wheatfall lives in Portland, Oregon. He is a published poet and performs lyrical poetry to music. He has three books of poetry published by Fernwood Press. They are As Clean as a Bone (2018) which is an Eric Hoffer Award finalist and Our Scarlet Blue Wounds (2019). His new poetry book With Extreme Prejudice, Lest We Forget is now available. For more biographical information visit https://www.poet-emmettwheatfall.com.

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Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. Click here to visit her website, and here for her Facebook page. 

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Natasha Zarin’s work has appeared in Event, The Maynard, Grand Dame Literary, Press Pause Press. In 2021, she read at the Emerging Writers and Readers Series in Toronto (virtually). Natasha works as a school counsellor and lives in Surrey, BC with her partner and two children. She is currently writing about tentacles and tripe in a memoir about food and family.

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Click here  to read the summer 2022 poetry collection

Click here  to read the spring 2022 collection of jazz poetry

Click here  to read the fall/winter 2021/22 collection of jazz poetry

 

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Click here  for information about how to submit your poetry

Click here  to subscribe to the quarterly Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter

Click here  to help support Jerry Jazz Musician

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6 comments on “A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition”

  1. What a wealth of jazz poetry! Enough to get lost and then find yourself again.
    To Martha Patterson, I especially appreciate your salute to the radio host who is the source of your jazz education. I suspect we are all still learning, but definitely true for me.
    Listen to my show Good Vibes (JazzOn2) and I will teach you what I know about the vibraphone, an instrument that captured my attention some twenty years ago, and had been adopted into jazz by Lionel Hampton and Red Norvo in the 1930’s. My last ten shows are also archived at mixcloud.com
    under Good Vibes with Gloria Krolak, which I update every month.
    http://www.gloriajazz.com

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Publisher’s Notes

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher...A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”

In This Issue

Announcing the book publication of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry...The first Jerry Jazz Musician poetry anthology published in book form includes 90 poems by 47 poets from all over the world, and features the brilliant artwork of Marsha Hammel and a foreword by Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator David Amram. The collection is “interactive” (and quite unique) because it invites readers – through the use of QR codes printed on many of the book’s pages – to link to selected readings by the poets themselves, as well as to historic audio and video recordings (via YouTube) relevant to many of the poems, offering a holistic experience with the culture of jazz.

Interview

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Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong...The author discusses the third volume of his trilogy, which includes the formation of the Armstrong-led ensembles known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven that modernized music, the way artists play it, and how audiences interact with it and respond to it.

The Sunday Poem

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“You Know by the Laughter,” by Joan E. Bauer


The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work....

Joan E. Bauer reads her poem at its conclusion


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Feature

“What one song best represents your expectations for 2025?” Readers respond...When asked to name the song that best represents their expectations for 2025, respondents often cited songs of protest and of the civil rights era, but so were songs of optimism and appreciation, including Bob Thiele and George David Weiss’ composition “What a Wonderful World,” made famous by Louis Armstrong, who first performed it live in 1959. The result is a fascinating and extensive outlook on the upcoming year.

Poetry

Sax in a Blue Suit by Samuel Dixon
21 jazz poems on the 21st of March, 2025...An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician by poets sharing their relationship to the music, and with the musicians who perform it.

Interview

photo by Brian McMillen
Interview with Phillip Freeman, author of In the Brewing Luminous: The Life and Music of Cecil Taylor...The author discusses Cecil Taylor – the most eminent free jazz musician of his era, whose music marked the farthest boundary of avant-garde jazz.

Feature

photo of Rudy Van Gelder via Blue Note Records
“Rudy Van Gelder: Jazz Music’s Recording Angel” – by Joel Lewis...For over 60 years, the legendary recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder devoted himself to the language of sound. And although he recorded everything from glee clubs to classical music, he was best known for recording jazz – specifically the musicians associated with Blue Note and Prestige records. Joel Lewis writes about his impact on the sound of jazz, and what has become of his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio.

Poetry

photo of Charlie Parker by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress; Design by Rhonda R. Dorsett
Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 2025 Jazz Poetry Calendar...Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 12-month 2025 calendar of jazz poetry winds through the upcoming year with her poetic grace while inviting us to wander through music by the likes of Hoagy Carmichael, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughan, Melody Gardot and Charlie Parker.

Playlist

“Sextets: The Joy of Six” – a playlist by Bob Hecht...The cover of the 1960 debut album by the Jazztet, co-founded by the trumpeter Art Farmer and the tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, and which always featured a trombonist and a piano-bass-drums rhythm section. Golson wrote much of the music, but “Hi-Fly” – a tune featured on Bob Hecht’s two-hour playlist devoted to sextets – was written by pianist Randy Weston, and appears on the 1960 album Big City Sounds.

Interview

Interview with Jonathon Grasse: author of Jazz Revolutionary: The Life and Music of Eric Dolphy....The multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy was a pioneer of avant-garde technique. His life cut short in 1964 at the age of 36, his brilliant career touched fellow musical artists, critics, and fans through his innovative work as a composer, sideman and bandleader. Jonathon Grasse’s Jazz Revolutionary is a significant exploration of Dolphy’s historic recorded works, and reminds readers of the complexity of his biography along the way. Grasse discusses his book in a December, 2024 interview.

Feature

Dmitry Rozhkov, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“Thoughts on Matthew Shipp’s Improvisational Style” – an essay by Jim Feast..Short of all the musicians being mind readers, what accounts for free jazz musicians’ – in this instance those playing with the pianist Matthew Shipp – incredible ability for mutual attunement as they play?

Art

Photo of Joe Lovano by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Joe Lovano...Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition features 1999 photographs of the saxophonist Joe Lovano.

Feature

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two – Vol. 11: “Chick” and “Hen” Lit...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 11th edition, Rife writes about the “chicks” (energetic women, attractive, and open to experience) and “hens” (older women who have either buried or lost a loved one, and who seem content with their lives) who are at the center of stories with jazz within its theme.

Interview

photo by Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress
A Black History Month Profile: The legendary author Richard Wright...In a 2002 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Richard Wright biographer Hazel Rowley discusses the life and times of legendary author Richard Wright, whose work included the novels Native Son andBlack Boy

Feature

On the Turntable — The “Best Of the ‘Best Of’” in 2024 jazz recordings...Our annual year-end compilation of jazz albums oft mentioned by a wide range of critics as being the best of 2024

In Memoriam

photo via Pexels.com
“Departures to the Final Arms Hotel in 2024” – poetic tributes, by Terrance Underwood...2024 produced its share of losses of legendary jazz musicians. Terrance Underwood pays poetic homage to a handful who have touched his life, imagining their admittance to the Final Arms Hotel, a destination he introduces in his prelude.

Community

Stewart Butterfield, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Community Bookshelf #4...“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 (September, 2024 – March, 2025)

Feature

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 23: “The Wave”...In this edition of an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film, Douglas’ poem is written partly as a reference to the Antonio Carlos Jobin song “Wave,” but mostly to get in the famed Japanese artist Hokusai’s idea of the wave as being a huge, threatening thing. (The poem initially sprang from listening to Cal Tjader’s “Along Came Mary”).

Short Fiction

Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons/blur effect added
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #67 — “Bluesette,” by Salvatore Difalco...The author’s award-winning story is a semi-satirical mood piece about a heartbroken man in Europe listening to a recording by the harmonica player Toots Thielemans while under the influence of a mind-altering substance.

Interview

Interview with James Kaplan, author of 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool...The esteemed writer tells a vibrant story about the jazz world before, during, and after the 1959 recording of Kind of Blue, and how the album’s three genius musicians came together, played together, and grew together (and often apart) throughout the experience.

Feature

photo of Lester Young by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Jazz History Quiz #179...Throughout his career, this saxophonist was known as the “Vice Prez” because he sounded so similar to “Prez,” Lester Young (pictured). Who was he?

Community

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize XLIX...Announcing the six writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize v. XLIX, whose work was published in Jerry Jazz Musician during 2024.

Publisher’s Notes

photo by Rhonda Dorsett
On turning 70, and contemplating the future of Jerry Jazz Musician...

Feature

“Are Jazz-Hop Instrumentals Jazz?” – an observation (and playlist) by Anthony David Vernon...Google “what is jazz-hop?” and the AI overview describes it is “a subgenre of hip-hop that combines jazz and hip-hop music. It developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.” In Mr. Vernon’s observation, he makes the case that it is also a subgenre of jazz.

Community

Notes on Bob Hecht’s book, Stolen Moments: A Photographer’s Personal Journey...Some thoughts on a new book of photography by frequent Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writer Bob Hecht

Art

“The Jazz Dive” – the art of Allen Mezquida...The artist's work is inspired by the counterculture music from the 1950s and 60s, resulting in art “that resonates with both eyes and ears.” It is unique and creative and worth a look…

True Jazz Stories

Columbia Records; via Wikimedia Commons
“An Evening with Michael Bloomfield” – a true blues story by David Eugene Everard...The author recounts his experience meeting and interviewing the great blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield in 1974…

Short Fiction

photo via PxHere
“The Magic” – a story by Mark Bruce...Most bands know how to make music. They learn to play together so that it sounds good and maybe even get some gigs. Most bands know that you have your chord progressions and your 4/4 beat and your verses and bridges. Some bands even have a guy (or a woman, like Chrissy Hynde) who writes songs. So what gives some bands the leg up into the Top 40?

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

Coming Soon

An interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers;, Also, a new Jazz History Quiz, and lots of short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and much more in the works...

Interview Archive

Ella Fitzgerald/IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Click to view the complete 25-year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Judith Tick on Ella Fitzgerald (pictured),; Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz on the Girl Groups of the 60's; Tad Richards on Small Group Swing; Stephanie Stein Crease on Chick Webb; Brent Hayes Edwards on Henry Threadgill; Richard Koloda on Albert Ayler; Glenn Mott on Stanley Crouch; Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake; Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.