Charlie Parker
by Beverly Bell

Charlie Parker
by Jack Kerouac

Charlie Parker looked like Buddha

Charlie Parker, who recently died

Laughing at a juggler on the TV

After weeks of strain and sickness,

Was called the Perfect Musician.

And his expression on his face

Was as calm, beautiful, and profound

As the image of the Buddha

Represented in the East, the lidded eyes

The expression that says “All Is Well”

This was what Charlie Parker

Said when he played, All is Well.

You had the feeling of early-in-the-morning

Like a hermit’s joy, or

Like the perfect cry of some wild gang

At a jam session,

“Wail, Wop”

Charlie burst his lungs to reach the speed

Of what the speedsters wanted

And what they wanted

Was his eternal Slowdown.

In his own words, Kerouac wanted to be known as a jazz poet and with this book he sought to write in a way consistent with how a musician would play jazz.

I actually do not know if the poem above, entitled, “Charlie Parker” is from “Mexico City Blues”, however, in his great and weird book, “Mexico City Blues,” Jack Kerouac zooms in on Charlie Parker for three of the poetry volume’s 242 choruses. “How sweet a story it is/When you hear Charley [sic] Parker/tell it …” he sings.

And well he might, for Kerouac had a lifelong love of jazz and he came of age at a crucial time in the music’s history. Because he was born in 1922 and lived until 1969, he was able to slice across the diversity of the jazz idiom with the assured opinions of a genuine fan who’d found a taste for traditional New Orleans jazz, big-band jazz, experimental jazz, be-bop, cool jazz and the West Coast influences that have all run together into the different estuaries that have brought us to where we now find ourselves as jazz fans.

And that influence found its way into his prose, his poetry and his very method of thinking. Through him, the notion was tempered and hammered by contemporaries into a quite extraordinary body of work that has affected many notions of music, literature and the improvisational aspects of both that have enriched bookish music lovers like me.

The Beat Generation, of which Kerouac was a founding member — in fact, he even named it — are the spiritual grandparents of many current trends in artistic expression. And, as with all fait accompli influences, there are some untalented charlatans who nowadays insist upon claiming the Beats as progenitors of each particular art, but who have no claim whatsoever on the bloodline.

Kerouac was different. His love of wordplay and his avid appreciation of jazz blended into a kind of holistic method that affected other important Beat Generation figures, such as poets Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso and the problematic but very intriguing novelist, William S. Burroughs.

Kerouac himself prefaced “Mexico City Blues” (Grove Press, New York, 1959) with this statement: “I want to be considered a jazz poet blowing a long blues in an afternoon jam session on Sunday. I take 242 choruses; my ideas vary and sometimes roll from chorus to chorus or from halfway through a chorus to halfway into the next.”

[mp3j track=”ivegotrhythm.mp3″]

Source: http://www.skyjazz.com/commentaries/kerouac.htm
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City_Blues

Link back to the Poetry Wednesday tour on Laurita’s page

deletereply instrumentalpavilion wrote on Jun 22, ’09 Nice…i was in the Air Force with Kerouac’s niece yeas ago.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jun 22, ’09 instrumentalpavilion said Nice…i was in the Air Force with Kerouac’s niece yeas ago. How interesting ! Did she write poetry also ?

deletereply instrumentalpavilion wrote on Jun 22, ’09 lauritasita said How interesting ! Did she write poetry also ? Not that I remember….she was in the same squadron as I was and thought it was funny that I was the only one who picked up on her last name…..this was back in 1982. Pretty funny.

deletereply caffeinatedjo wrote on Jun 23, ’09 I’ve always liked Kerouac. Someday I wanna’ travel Route 66. His words are almost like a melody.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jun 23, ’09 caffeinatedjo said I’ve always liked Kerouac. I’ve heard of him, but I never read anything until recently. He’s pretty interesting, isn’t he ?

deletereply billatplay wrote on Jun 24, ’09 I Remember You, was my favourite and his rendering of Just Friends must have brought many a tear to each sexes eyes.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jun 24, ’09 billatplay said I Remember You, was my favourite Yes, I like that one, too !

deletereply bostonsdandd wrote on Jun 24, ’09 Oh wow! This is great, Laurita! Thank you for sharing it with us.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jun 24, ’09 bostonsdandd said Oh wow! This is great, Laurita! Thank you for sharing it with us. I hope you enjoy the music !

deletereply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jun 25, ’09 that poem says it all what a tribute to him, and great music to read by, thanks for this.

editdeletereply lauritasita wrote on Jun 25, ’09 forgetmenot525 said that poem says it all what a tribute to him, and great music to read by, Thank you so much, Loretta.

deletereply slohomeles wrote on Jun 27, ’09 Wonderful post… I’d never heard of Kerouac until his name popped up in Billy Joel’s song: “We Didn’t Start The Fire”