To Say I Like Jazz - July 25 2026

 

To Say I Like Jazz

July 25 2026

To say I like jazz

is not a clever way to brag

about my sophistication.

After all, I’m ignorant of music,

wouldn't know a transposed chord

from a suspended one,

or what a treble clef means.

I don’t hang out in after hours clubs,

smoke French cigarettes,

or stay up all night

seducing the ladies.

(Or at least attempting to!)

And to say it’s a metaphor for life

 — improvised,

sometimes discordant,

and with players handing off

like friendly rivals toward a common goal

but often on their own — 

would be hyperbolic.

Baseball, yes

but not jazz.

I’m no evangelist;

after all, people like what they like.

But when the jazz singer sings,

the sax bends a note,

and the standup bass

walks its way deeper

then plucks that sweet upper string

I can’t resist;

late night jazz

smooth as well-aged scotch

with the gravel of a life well-lived

and the beat of a broken heart.

They tell me it’s unpopular.

That punk, metal, rock

own the charts.

But since I’ve never been cool, popular, or au courant

why start now?

Jazz,

the gateway drug

to good listening.

https://youtu.be/5bGjPjbXdYo

Please, listen all the way to the end! 

(And I really am serious about baseball.  . . . But then, that’s a whole other poem.)