Storyville

Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz & Literature .
Edited by Sascha Feinstein.
Indiana : Indiana UP, 2007. 436 pages. Paperback: $21.95. Hardback: $55.00.

Sascha Feinstein, the editor of the remarkable jazz literary journal, Brilliant Corners , has edited a new jazz anthology, Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz & Literature . Useful, engaging anthologies of jazz literature, such as this one, are gems for jazz culture. And, in my opinion, there are simply not enough them. The history of jazz, which parallels American history, is important, and the chronicles of jazz culture may lead us into a new understanding of who we are as Americans, one must hope. These chronicles take the form of interviews with leading musicians and musical aficionados; poems about jazz, such as Hughes' “The Weary Blues;” short stories and novels about jazz, such as Baldwin's “Sonny's Blues;” plays about jazz, such as Wilson 's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , and so on. The classic examples I have given are from the past, and this anthology continues in that tradition by publishing work by contemporary jazz poets and writers, musicians, and critics.

For instance, in the first chapter, Feinstein interviews poet and writer Amiri Baraka (b. 1934), an American literary celebrity who often performs his poems with jazz music. Baraka's famous black nationalist poem “Black Art” and an excerpt about Charlie Parker from his award-winning play “The Dutchman” are included in the anthology, along with an interview from 1999, reprinted from Brilliant Corners . In the interview Baraka urges young musicians to study and learn the jazz classics and to know and perform difficult jazz tunes that are sometimes overlooked, such as Strayhorn's “Blood Count” and “Lotus Blossom,” to invigorate and deepen American classical music. As always, Baraka's comments are pithy, thought-provoking, and illuminating.

Among the figures in the anthology at least half are well-known poets, including Hayden Carruth, Cornelius Eady, Yusef Komunyakaa, Philip Levine, Haki R. Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, and Paul Zimmer. It is a pleasure to read their jazz-related poems, such as Carruth's “In That Session,” along with interviews about their love of jazz and how the music intersects with their art and nourishes it.

Others are critics, such as Dan Morgenstern, who has served as editor for Metronome , Jazz, and Downbeat , in addition to directing the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University , which houses one of the world's largest jazz collections. Excerpts from Morgenstern's engaging reviews and reflections on Bill Evans, Paul Desmond, and Lester Young are included in his chapter, along with an interview.

Also, interviews with musicians are featured in this anthology, such a talk with pianist and composer Fred Hersch, who incorporates classic American poetry into his jazz compositions, namely excerpts from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass in a recent project. Feinstein and Hersch talk at length about this cross-pollination and its extraordinary results. Hersch, a prodigy, started playing piano at age four, picking up bits of jingles and melodies from the TV and reproducing them on the piano. Bassist (and essayist) Bill Crow is another of the musicians featured in the anthology. Crow can be heard on disc with the Gerry Mulligan group, on the What Is There to Say? recording, among many others.

In terms of placing this new anthology, one might draw parallels to the jazz literature anthology Moment's Notice: Jazz in Poetry & Prose , edited by Art Lange and Nathaniel Mackey (Coffee House Press, 1993). However, although Moment's Notice does include creative writing and photos, like Ask Me Now , it does not include interviews, reviews, or criticism. Feinstein's book seems to pair the strengths of Moment's Notice along with the strengths of a collection like Whitney Balliett's American Musicians series in that it includes illuminating review material, along with interviews, in addition to the ground the Moment's Notice covers as a text devoted singularly to creative writing about jazz.

In summation, this new anthology will be appealing to jazz and jazz studies students as well as to the general reader who loves or is simply curious about jazz. It is unassuming and approachable. The chapters never stray very far into highly critical or theoretical discussions, and the anthology offers great pleasure in its many creative work inclusions, such as providing a cornucopia of great, contemporary poems by the writers featured. Also, Feinstein is a knowledgeable, amenable interviewer, and he facilitates some wonderful, important discussion about jazz as an art form, returning to those seminal questions: Where has jazz been? Where is it now? Where is it going next?

This book will make a fine addition to any jazz lover's collection. And I predict you will pick it up and enjoy it again and again.

-- Kevin Rabas

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