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Jazz and Poetry have had a long albeit sporadic affinity for another for six decades or more. Word Jazz, a combination of poetic improvisation mixed with other sounds and jazz was mastered by Ken Nordine. We recently lost Ken, aged 98, to unforgiving movement of time. In addition to Word Jazz there is also more traditional combinations of poetry and jazz put forth by Charles Mingus, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac, and others. In this hour we will pay homage to the passing of Ken as well as dig some of the aural and cerebral permutations of sound that these purveyors from the beat generation up to the present have happily laid down for us to dwell intently upon.
Artist | Track | Album |
Ken Nordine & Richard Marx | Mr. Big | Next! |
Face in the Jazzamatazz | ||
Charles Mingus | Scenes in the City | A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry |
Jeffrey Wright | Fifty Dollars | The Passion of Charlie Parker |
Jack Kerouac & Steve Allen | Charlie Parker | Poetry for the Beat Generation |
Langston Hughes | Blues Montage | The Weary Blues with Langston Hughes |
Ken Nordine | Tape Recorder | Triple Talk |
Ken Nordine & The Fred Katz Group |
Down the Drain | Son of Word Jazz |
Benjamin Boone | Call it Music | The Poetry of Jazz |
Gil Scott-Heron | Is That Jazz? | Reflections |
Ken Nordine | Sound Museum | Word Jazz |