Poems by Bryn Fortey

I'm pleased to say that I am starting to get some pieces about not driving.  Let's start with Bryn Fortey's poem set in the UK.  I hope that reading his poem will encourage you to send me your poems on this theme (not driving)--although I'm always happy to receive poems set in the UK.  

BUT NOT FOR ME

DRIVE by James Sallis

Is permanently in my top ten novels

Sparse, pared back, no padding

I admire the writing

Even though the title is not  

Part of my personal vocabulary 

Drive?

ME?

Bollocks!

When other teens were

Working on worn out old bangers

Head stuck under a rusting hood

Happily covered in oil and muck

I was

Having a smoke

A glass of beer

Trying to chat up

The new girl on the block

I have never had any interest in cars

Or any wish to drive one

I took lessons once

At an employer’s insistence

But they just showed me firsthand

How many idiots drove cars

And confirmed what I knew

That it wasn’t for me

There have been times in my life when

A license might have been handy

But I’ve made it

Got by

All the way to old age

Without one

With one

My level of incompetence

Might have seen me dead years ago

Swings and roundabouts my friend

Any chance of a lift?

Bryn Fortey 

I just realized that the poem above is a repost.  Oh well.  I meant to post the poems below.  Both honor musicians born in the 1930s.

EARL HOOKER

(1930  -  1970)

In a genre renowned for the claiming

Of unproven relationships

Earl Zebedee Hooker really was

The younger cousin of the more famous

John Lee Hooker

Born in Clarksdale, Mississippi

A birthplace the Hooker cousins shared with

The likes of Son House and Ike Turner

Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf

Lived there a spell

And Bessie Smith tragically died there

Earl was an acknowledged master of

The slide guitar and wah-wah blues

Paving the way for the likes of

Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck

A misspent youth saw him run with

Chicago street gangs

A careful man a dollar

Renowned for his reluctance to pay

The members of his bands

He died young

Finally losing his battle against tuberculosis

Being remembered mainly

As a musician’s musician

Still known to have been enormously influential

Bryn Fortey

LEE MORGAN

(1938  -  1972)

Hard bop player Lee Morgan

Was hired by Dizzy Gillespie at 18

And Dizzy knew a thing or two

About jazz trumpeters

A year on and he was part of

Coltrane’s Blue Train sessions

Later joining Art Blakey’s

Jazz Messengers  

Before recording with Benny Golson

And leading his own group

He even had a crossover hit

With The Sidewinder

But his development as a

Soloist, band leader and composer

Was cut tragically short

When his long-term girl-friend

Shot him after an argument

At Slug’s Saloon, a New York club

Where his band had been playing

His injuries might not have been fatal

But the ambulance was delayed

By bad driving conditions following snow

And Lee bled to death

On such twists of fate do we live or die

  

Bryn Fortey  

Of course, I have to start with Ahmad Jamal's "But Not for Me":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkogQxKXwZc

Lunice and the Jealous Guys is more hiphop than jazz, but I have to post a song like "Bus Stop Jazz."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZszINdMC9g

I also have to post Guru's "Transit Ride" with old old footage from the NYC subway:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zzhKmfA4zw

Branford Marsalis plays both alto and soprano saxophone on this song.

Thank you for your patience with me.  Here is Tommy McCook's "Jazz Walking."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9DXccwDbks

I'll finish with "Walkin'" with Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Billy Cobham.  Not only is it real jazz as one of the YouTube commenters says but it also sets a rapid pace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asJRAGUlZ1c

I realize that I should include some music by Earl Hooker, especially since Bryn has introduced him to The Song Is...

Let's start with "Earl's Boogie":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joOiY13EXLk

Here is his "End of the Blues": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGokpytzVAw

"Sky is Crying" has Johnny Walker on vocals:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UwtckAte4

I'll include a couple more links to Lee Morgan's music.

I don't think I've posted his hit "The Sidewinder":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJi03NqXfk8

I'll finish with his "Search for the New Land":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDfkkRa1VA8