Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 22: “Energy Man, or, God is in the House”
Art Tatum plays fast
fast as Sundays
fast as sunset in November
fast as a hurry up offense
fast as a 20 dollar bill flying down the street
November 26th, 2024
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 21: “The Blue Truth”
This edition of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film is written in response to Oliver Nelson’s 1961 recording The Blues and the Abstract Truth
...September 11th, 2024
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 20: “Notes on Genius”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is written in response to the music of Wayne Shorter.
...April 18th, 2024
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 19: “The Universal Tone”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is influenced by Stillpoint, the 2021 album by Zen practitioner Barrett Martin
...January 24th, 2024
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 18: “The Sermon”
Hammers in a construction site
sound like a band warming up,
weird solos by a bunch of drummers.
Jimmy Smith comes down draped in groove,
sermonizing your stride,
clouds chest-out like they know something.
A man standing in front of a house,
shouting, I got nothing from you!
November 29th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 17: “All I know about music is not many people ever really hear it”
I don’t know where it starts, he said, but can you imagine
watching They Cloned Tyrone and the music playing,
almost the whole dance club version of Love Hangover,
I can’t even watch anything, my mind looks through the settings,
the dialogue is like a crowd talking in a club and I want to listen in,
go into that Diana Ross whisper singing love voice
October 24th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 16: “Little Waltz” and “Summertime”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. In this edition, the poet connects the recordings of Jessica Williams’ “Little Waltz” and Gene Harris’ “Summertime.”
...September 20th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 15: “Roots and Threads”
Vivaldi, especially “The Four Seasons,”
keeps showing up in forms of jazz:
a hint, a structure—but try unraveling
any musical DNA you go straight back
to singing and to drum, voice and poetry—
August 10th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 14: “Music Under Banyan Trees” and “Notes on the Steely Dan Piece”
Two poems devoted to Steely Dan’s 1977 recording of “Aja”
...June 22nd, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 13: “What We Talk About When We Talk About Kind of Blue”
The poet writes about the significance of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”, and why it is the “it” jazz recording…
...April 18th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 12: “Soul Music”
In this edition, the poet writes about attending a McCoy Tyner performance (or “ceremony”), and hearing the musician’s one word philosophy of music.
...March 9th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 11: “Blow by Blow”
“Blow by Blow” is a portrait of Berkeley, California in the 1970’s, and the fusion jazz that was finding its way onto the scene at that time.
...January 17th, 2023
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 10: “The Weeping Tree”
“The Weeping Tree” arises from the poet listening to (and watching) Sinne Eeg & Thomas Fonnesbæk perform “Willow Weep For Me”
...December 13th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 9: “Fire From Heaven”
“Fire From Heaven” arises from the poet Douglas Cole listening to John Coltrane’s 1964 album A Love Supreme
...October 24th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 8: “The Ghost Note”
“The Ghost Note” arises from the poet listening to “From Paris With Love” from Melody Gardot’s 2020 album Sunset in the Blue
...August 23rd, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 7: “Step Along The Night Way”
He’s a-stagger the patrilineous
hillside grove wonder tunnels
street black ribbons going bower-deep
with sunlight glitter punctuations
feeling the great payoff on the way
July 11th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 6: “Convergence”
The poem “Convergence” rises from listening to the 1960 album, “Stan Getz Quartet at Large”
...May 28th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 5: “The Sunset and the Mockingbird Suite” (in honor of Tommy Flanagan)
Mr. Cole’s suite consists of eight poems, all interpretations from songs on pianist Tommy Flanagan’s album Sunset and the Mockingbird Suite
...April 14th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 4: “Maiden Voyage”
Set forth beautiful one
open sea and open sky
as far as your eye can see
full wind filling the sails
pushing those hesitant steps
three at a time before
the cymbal crash of wave
February 25th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 3: “Trading Fours”
Horace Silver’s got a grove. Just listen to that left hand,
like a heart skipping a beat or jumping up to a double-beat,
like beholding something so beautiful you can hardly believe it.
January 19th, 2022
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 2: “The Galactic Fantastic — One Note”
Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This poem is written to the 1957 Coleman Hawkins recording of “Juicy Fruit.”
...December 17th, 2021
Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 1: Chet Baker’s “Night Bird”
I had a little radio up on top of the refrigerator, and I turned it on as the sunlight went and the world filled up with darkness. I listened to a jazz station and smoked a cigarette and blew the smoke out the window.
...November 18th, 2021
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