They know how to write (and sing) a blues

  Musikfredagen har ännu en gång bläddrat i Kevin Youngs urvalsantologi Blues poems. Om två veckor får ni prov på hans egen produktion då jag väljer texter ur hans Jelly Roll.

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  Jayne Cortez (1934-2012) var en afrikansk-amerikansk poet, aktivist, förläggare och Spoken word-performancekonstnär vars verk firas för sina politiska, surrealistiska och dynamiska innovationer i lyricism och intuitiva ljudbilder. Hennes verk är en betydande del av Black Arts Movement. Källa. Wikipedia

  I dikten/sången "You know" omnämns två av de stora rösterna inom blues- och soulmusiken. Jag fyller upp inlägget med en spellista i vilken såväl Big Mama Thorntons originalversion av "Hound Dog" som Aretha Franklins "Respect" ingår. 
  Värt att notera: Aretha Franklin fyller 75 år den 25:e mars.

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You know (extract), by Jayne Cortez
(From Blues poems. Selected and edited by Kevin Young. New York : Knopf, 2003.)

(For the people who speak the you know language)

You know
i sure would like to write a blues
you know
a nice long blues
you know
a good feeling piece to my writing hand
you know my hand that can bring two pieces of life together in your ear
you know
one drop of blues turning a paper clip into three wings and a bone into a revolt
you know
a blues passing up the stereotype symbols
you know
go into the dark meat of a crocodile and pin point the process
you know
into a solo a hundred times like the first line of Aretha Franklin
you know
like Big Mama Thornton
you know
i sure would like to write a blues
(...)

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Sonia Sanchez

  Sonia Sanchez (född Wilsonia Benita Driver, 1934) är en afrikansk-amerikansk poet oftast förknippad med Black Arts Movement. Hon har gett ut över ett dussin diktsamlingar, samt noveller, kritiska essäer, pjäser och barnböcker. Källa: Wikipedia

Blues, by Sonia Sanchez
(From Blues poems. Selected and edited by Kevin Young. New York : Knopf, 2003.)

in the night
in my half hour
negro dreams
i hear voices knocking at the door
i see walls dripping screams up
and down the halls
                                   won't someone open
the door for me? won't some
one schedule my sleep
and don't ask no questions?
noise.
            like when he took me to his
home away from home place
and i died the long sought after
death he'd planned for me.
Yeah, bessie he put in the bacon
and it overflowed the pot.
and two days later
when i was talking
i started to grin.
as everyone knows
i am still grinnning.

***

  A. Van Jordan (f. 1965) har gett ut fyra diktsamlingar. Han har tilldelats ett Whiting Writers Award, en Anisfield-Wolf Book Award och ett Pushcart Prize. Han är också mottagare av John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship och United States Artists Fellowship. Källa: Wikipedia

Cheating woman blues haiku, by A. van Jordan
(From Blues poems. Selected and edited by Kevin Young. New York : Knopf, 2003.)

In whipping noon sun,
a black snake dances through grass
to warm milk in bowls.

In biting noon sun,
a black snake dances through grass
to warm milk in bowls.

Daisies in her hair,
my woman crosses the tracks
to another man.

Cuttin' trees all day,
sweat and sawdust in my eyes;
she thinks I can't see.

Cuttin' trees all day,
sweat and sawdust in my eyes;
she thinks I can't see.

In a field of grass,
she lays her head down to dream
of muddy waters.