The Circuitous Path of Jazz in the 20 th Century: Fusing Music, Dance & African-American Poetry

1. The Circuitous Path of Jazz in the 20th Century: Fusing Music, Dance & African-American Poetry • AXIOM ASUNDER Four Episodes for Jazz Orchestra, Narrator, Dance Company & Choir __________________ Composed & Orchestrated by Buzz Jones ASCAP Poetry by Langston Hughes

2. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) • Hughes came of age as a poet and novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. He cites Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, Claude McKay, & Paul Laurence Dunbar as early influences. Several of his masterful works include The Weary Blues (1926), The Ways of White Folks (1934), as the lyricist for Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (1947), and two auto- biographical volumes - The Big Sea (1940) and I Wonder As I Wander (1956). Arnold Rampersad notes “his art was firmly rooted in race pride and race feeling even as he cherished his freedom as an artist.” Langston Hughes was passionate about jazz. He wrote convincingly about the art form and the musicians who risked so much to bare their souls.

6. NOCCA New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Riverfront

7. Episode 1 OCEANS APART Elegua was a god worshiped by the Yoruba people of West Africa. The music is based on the Afro-Cuban folkloric style of Bembe and the Clave rhythm. POETRY - Negro & Poem (1)

8. Episode 1 OCEANS APART • Cape Roca speaks to three rhythmic grooves that evolved in South America, Latin America and the Caribbean – Bossa Nova, Calypso, and Mambo. • POETRY - Our Land & Caribbean Sunset

10. Episode 2 NORTHERN TANGENTS • Konkombaliterally means “poor man’s brass band.” A solemn chorale springs to life as the Second Line percussion beat propels a New Orleans funeral procession. The Dixieland combo focuses on collective improvisation while the dancers interpret the story. POETRY As Befits A Man

12. Episode 2 NORTHERN TANGENTS • Red Dawn Bluesisa “gut bucket” 12 bar blues tune featuring a solo vocalist and the band singing the refrain. Chicago was a hotbed of activity for emerging jazz voices in the 1920s such as Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines. • POETRY Saturday Night

13. Episode 2 NORTHERN TANGENTS • 18th and Vine pays tribute to Bennie Moten and Count Basie. Southwest of Chicago lay Kansas City and a collection of jazz clubs located at 18th and Vine Streets. Swing dancing ruled the day in the 1930s as territory bands crisscrossed the country serving up “hot” rhythms for dancers of all ages. • POETRY Boogie 1 am Gone Boy

14. Episode 3 COAST TO COAST • Lenox Avenue at Midnight is a sultry ballad featuring alto saxophone supported by a broad palette of nocturnal colors. Hughes’ poetry transports us to Harlem roof-tops where “the moon is shining” and the “night sky is blue.” POETRY • Lenox Ave: Midnight Harlem Night Song

16. Episode 3 COAST TO COAST • In the1940s, jazz players began to push to boundaries of conventional swing music and Bebop was the result. Dig and Be Dug is a bop tune for septet that you would have heard at Minton’s Playhouse – pyrotechnics and virtuosic solos abound. • POETRY – Jazzonia & Motto

17. Episode 3 COAST TO COAST • Silver Rainis a passacaglia and fugue in triple meter. Cool and Third Stream jazz began to surface on both coasts by the early 1950s. Smoother textures, less angular melodic lines and use of classical forms defined the music as a reaction to Bebop. • POETRY In Time of Silver Rain

18. Episode 4 GROOVE MACHINE • Lulu was a madam who organized the most notorious brothel in New Orleans’ Red-Light District of Storyville at the turn of the 20th century. A reprise of the Afro-funk motive and a free jazz section leads directly to the finale. • Poetry – Afro-American Fragment

19. Episode 4 GROOVE MACHINE • Text for The Old Tan Pathis taken from the Old Testament books of Isaiah and Daniel. The dancers join the orchestra and choir for a joyous gospel “shout.” • POETRY-Tambourines

20. AXIOM ASUNDER