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photo by Brian Mcmillen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Les McCann at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner, 1980
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Compared To What?
It’s Les McCann & Eddie Harris
heard it back in ’69, heard it now
not once but twice, so nice, but
sadness got me tonight, hit me hard,
Compared to What, I can’t think,
want to get up, get out, do something
hit a jazz bar, have a drink, to that man
named Les McCann.
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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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Listen to the 1969 recording of Les McCann (piano and vocals) and Eddie Harris (tenor saxophone) performing “Compared to What,” with Benny Bailey (trumpet); Leroy Vinegar (bass); and Donald Dean (drums). [Rhino/Atlantic]
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Click here to read The Sunday Poem
Click here to read “A Collection of Jazz Poetry – Summer, 2023 Edition”
Click here for information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction
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Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced (and AI-free) since 1999
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