Jazz

Jazz

Poems by Walter Dean Myers

Illustrated by Christopher Myers

Bibliography

Walter Dean Myers, Illustrated by Christopher Myers, “JAZZ”, (New York: Holiday House, 2006).  ISBN: 9780823421732

 

Summary and Critical Analysis

In the poetry collection  “Jazz”, the father and son team of poet Walter Dean Myers and illustrator Christopher Myers have created a book that sizzles and sings with the rhythm and beat of Jazz and pops with the colors and free-wheeling style of New Orleans and Mardi Gras.  Dedicated “To the children of New Orleans” this collection of poems and paintings is joy to read and delight to view.

Beginning with a two page introduction explaining the evolution of Jazz as “the blending of two musical traditions, African and European,” Myers goes on to note that African music, “with its five-tone, or pentatonic, scales and complex rhythms came to North American during the slave trade.”  He goes on to describe the way that black musicians, who as slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write, learned to play “by ear” and thus were more inclined to improvisation.  To solve the problem of musical illiteracy, the musicians began to use European chord structures as the basis of their music, knowing that, within that chord framework, “a player could stray from the melody as originally composed and still make music that sounded as if it belonged to the same composition.”

The main body of the book, written to reflect differing style of jazz, and the culture of Jazz and New Orleans contains poems that move with the rhythm of jazz at the same time they speak to the heart and soul of the music.

The opening poem, entitled “Jazz,” is set on the right side of a two page painting showing a shirtless black man playing drums, and a more modern black man intently listening.  With its sky blue background and yellow and white words, the Myers duo lays out the foundation of jazz music.  This short poem sets the tone for the rest of the book.

 

Jazz

Start with Rhythm

Start with the heart

Drumming in tongues

Along the Nile

A Black man’s drum speaks

LOVE

Start with

Rhythm

Start with

the HEART

Work songs

Gospel

Triumph

Despair

Voices

Lifted

From the soul

This poem, about the heart of Jazz being based in rhythm, heart, and soul is echoed throughout the book in different ways.  In the poem “Louie, Louie, How You Play So Sweet?” Myers writes, presumably about, presumably Louis Armstrong repeating the refrain, “What have you heard, down on Bourbon Street?” as the source of the inspiration for the music.  The words of the poem, in purple, set against a yellow background is contrasted by the dapper figure of Louie whose background is divided between the bright yellow and the darker black and red indicating complexity to his music.

Each poem in the book, along with their individual illustrations set the tone for the type and style of music about which the poem is written. “OH, MISS KITTY” ,  is written in the cadence and style of a blues song with white and yellow words on a purple background across from a painting of a man playing a bass that dwarfs him in scale illustrates the cadence of the poem and the thumping bass lines of the blues, which are beautifully represented.

Perhaps my favorite poem of the book, “GOODBYE TO OLD BOB JOHNSON” is set on two pages that neatly encompass the two halves of a New Orleans funeral parade.  The first page, with brass and drum musicians displayed against a blue back ground and its chorus of

The drums are solemn as we walk along

The banjo twangs a gospel song

Let the deacons preach and the widow cry

While a sad horn sounds a last good-bye

Good-bye to old Bob Johnson

Good-Bye

gives way to second page of the poem on a bright yellow background with illustrations of men dancing and playing music representing the second half of a traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral, with the first word on the page being (Faster) as the sadness of the first page gives way to the celebration of life and the belief that death is not the end.  The poem uses a syncopated rhythm with repeated rhymes in the lines:

We’re stepping

And we’re hipping

And we’re dipping, too

We’re celebrating,

Syncopating

And it’s all for you.

The illustration shows a crowd that is grieving loss and celebrating the after-life with the rhythms and music that were loved in life.

The poems in the book continue, each emphasizing an aspect of jazz from “Twenty Finger Jack” with its illustration of an African-American piano player in black suit lined with red pinstripes and a yellow shirt and tie using his long fingers to make music using the piano evokes a hopping New Orleans jazz club on a sultry Saturday night.

The keyboard is jumping,

And the music’s going round

And round

Other poems such as “Be-Bop”, “Jazz Vocal”, and “Blue Creeps In” are written as other forms of jazz in both tone and rhythm, along with lush illustrations that echo each poems theme.  Of these poems, “Blue Creeps In” is the most moving.  With a double page spread with a Royal Blue background, a lone man in shadow, pictured on the left side of the painting plays a stand-up bass, while on the right side, a beautiful woman, dressed in yellow, a sadness palpable on her face reflects the loneliness that is presented in the poem.

Myers closes the book with a “Glossary of Jazz Terms” and a “Jazz Time Line” which sets out, by year, major milestones in the development of jazz and some of its greatest musicians.  These tools will be very useful in using this book as a teaching tool and as a key to understanding some of the finer points of the poetry.

In books that we have read this semester, there have been times when the text was of a higher importance than the illustrations, and books where the opposite was true.  In this beautiful book, both take center stage.  The illustrations, which are bathed in the purples, yellow, blues, and greens of New Orleans and Mardi Gras are an integral part of the effect the poems which they accompany can convey.

Likewise, the text, and the way the Myers plays with rhythm, and rhyme, and timing, always eager to improvise within set patterns has the true ring of music.  In this book, the illustrations and poems take on equal value and are perfectly complimentary.  Although each could stand on their own, combined, the illustrations and the poems create something that is greater than the sum of their parts.  As someone who always has Jazz playing in background while I study, write, paint, or draw, this book, although ostensibly a children’s book, spoke to me in a very moving way.

While younger children might not be able to grasp the intricacies of the poems, older children, and adults, especially those who love jazz will want to share these poems and paintings with others.  However, it is not necessary to grasp the deeper intricacies of the work to enjoy the book.  Children will love the colorful illustrations and the rhythm of the poems.  Read aloud, in an expressive way, they will hear the music as well.

Review Excerpts

Google Books:  From bebop to New Orleans, from ragtime to boogie, and every style in between, this collection of Walter Dean Myers's energetic and engaging poems, accompanied by Christopher Myers's bright and exhilarating paintings, celebrates different styles of the American art form, jazz. "Jazz" takes readers on a musical journey from jazz's beginnings to the present day.

Goodreads.com:  From bebop to New Orleans, from ragtime to boogie--and every style in between--this collection of energetic poems, accompanied by bright and exhilarating paintings, celebrates different styles of the American art form, jazz.

Winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Award Poetry Award

 

Connections:

Read and review the introduction and Glossary of Jazz Terms prior to reading the book aloud to students so that they will have a basic understanding of the terminology and history of which Myers is writing.

If you have students with musical abilities, have them attempt to set a poem to music and perform it for the class.

Discuss the history of slavery, and other contributions brought by Africans to America.

Read the book as an exploration of Mardi Gras and its history and traditions and its importance to the culture of New Orleans.

Discuss how the illustrations reflect the subject of the poems, and how the use of color is used to evoke emotion.

Ask the children what they think about the clothing in the paintings and if they think the clothing portrayed is important to the illustration.