Reviews

Jazz Poems by Kevin Young

algriffin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring reflective

4.0

emilymorgan02's review

4.0

This was intriguing and actually caused me to do a lot of internet searching, as I'm apparently not very well-versed in Jazz. The poems were raw, sometimes musical, almost always emotional, and opened up a door to a time and place, to people long gone, who created a movement.

sainte_v's review

3.0

favorites:

"god pity me whom (god distinctly has)" - e.e. cummings
"jazz fantasia" - carl sandburg
"trumpet player" - langston hughes
"rose solitude" - jayne cortez
"charlie parker birthday celebration, tompkins square park" - catherine bowman

adamcarrico91's review

3.0

Compilation itself is a good depiction of the beauty and tragedy of jazz and the blues. Some poems are incredible, others lackluster. One of my biggest takeaways was the unapologetically black nature of jazz, which just led me to thoughts about where that genre has moved over the past decades. The poems dealing specifically as odes to certain artists were the ones that least interested me, but do describe the music quite well.

Also, Lush Life is one of the very best poems I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

mcpelops7's review

reflective

4.0

blynecessity's review

Jazz poems just don't do it for me.

triptych_turning's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.0

As someone who normally does not enjoy poetry, I really enjoyed this book. The poems are vibrant and fresh, and I really enjoyed this book overall. 
My favourite poems were:

• Art Pepper by Edward Hirsch
• Epistrophe by Amiri Baraka
• The Secret Life of Musical Instruments by C. D. Wright