Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Reading Response: "Lee Morgan"

            David Henderson’s poem “Lee Morgan” seems to describe what a night at Club Baron was like. Club Baron is a historical jazz club in Harlem where people once went to hear jazz musicians such as Lee Morgan and Thelonious Sphere Monk play. Henderson mentions in his poem these two recognized hard-bop jazz musicians. Lee Morgan was an American hard bop trumpeter and Theolonious Sphere Monk was a jazz pianist and composer. Henderson eloquently describes what occurred in this club by using symbolism and vivid language. For example, in the second stanza, he says, “fly deep into night towards the light/good smoke/sings the horn/metal glass under Capricorn sky” (lines 9-12). In these lines, Henderson seems to be using light to symbolize jazz. In addition, I noticed that Henderson makes a lot of references to outer space. He mentions the Capricornus constellation, galaxy, black space, light beams and red lights, which paint an image of outer space to the reader. In the first stanza of the poem, “fly by night/black galaxy/friendly galaxy/fly by night/black space/light beams/fly by night,” I realized that Henderson uses repetition and personifies night and galaxy. His repetition of “fly by night,” I believe shows how every night when jazz musicians played at Club Baron, Club Baron became another place. In fact, Henderson sees these nights of jazz as a portal to another galaxy.

            Henderson also seems to create a musical sound in his poem by the way he listed descriptions of Club Baron in the third stanza. He says, “ ghetto jazzbeaus/slick trumpeteers/jericho jammin/ass-kicking/good timing/ hard bopping/ good lovin/ slick be bop blues and ghetto dues/so tough and tight/ and beau” (lines 16-25). His way of structuring this stanza creates a rhythm because the words seem to flow together as one reads line by line. Also, Henderson’s use of rhyme supports this musical tone in his poem because it makes his words sound more congruent. Furthermore, Henderson mentions the dancing taking place at Club Baron, which causes the poem to give a content emotion to his readers. Since the poem discusses about people and jazz musicians having a great time at this club, I thought the overall tone of the poem was joyful. The poem I thought had most similarities with “Lee Morgan” is “Slugs in the Far East” because they both focus on the topic of jazz clubs and musicians. “Slugs in the Far East,” as well goes back to a historical jazz spot that involved  people smoking, drinking, and listening to jazz. Also, they both reflect on Amiri Baraka’s conclusion that jazz was derived from slaves and work songs because Henderson in “Slugs in the Far East,” ends his poem saying, “ancient melodies haunt vacant/ night spots,” meaning that the songs slaves and first-generation African Americans did still live through jazz.

1 comment:

Christian said...

I also thought of David Henderson's poem on jazz was optimistic on the prospects of music. It viewed music as an art because of the ways it can move people on all fronts. Henderson and I share this passion for music as it was all very relatable.