Reading response 11/12

David Henderson's "Lee Morgan" seems to be illustrating a scene at club Baron which is located in Manhattan. This club was a significant spot where musicians such as Lee Morgan and Thelonious Monk preformed. Morgan was hard bop trumpeter and Monk was a jazz pianist and composer. The first few lines of the poem states, "fly by night, black galaxy, friendly galaxy"(1-3). This indicates the time is at night or during the evening which is the time many people go to clubs. Henderson is starting off by getting us in the correct hour so we can understand the scene better. He also goes to describe Morgan and Monk's performance; "lee morgan trilling on the ceiling, sphere monk dancing round the horseshoe bar"(14-15). Henderson does great job helping us visualize the scene at the club. The descriptiveness allows me to see that these musicians were very much into their music. Morgan and Monk were 21 years apart but they were still able to combine their musical styles of jazz. The last stanza was really interesting because it had a musical beat while I was reading it. Henderson might have listened to how people spoke during this time and played it back in his poem. He states, "slick trumpeteers, jericho jammin, ass-kicking, good timing, hard bopping" (17-21). It seems like he was imitating some of Morgan's fierce and sweet energy.

"Slugs in Far East" was another poem that I thought was similar to "Lee Morgan" because both of these Poems seem to take place at night. The theme seems to be a memory of someone's past. Based on the vocabulary used in both poems, the scenes seem to be on the same time period. Both poems have a calm and reminiscing sound. Henderson uses the form of poetic stanzas in both poems. "Slugs in the Far East" seems to be one huge stanza where "Lee Morgan" has multiple stanzas, long and short. The overall similarity between these two poems is the topic of jazz music and clubs. I think the topic of jazz and club scenes were important to Henderson because he was born a few years after Lee Morgan and resided in Harlem as well. Jazz music was very popular during his time. Smoking, jazz music, and dancing was a way for people to come together and enjoy themselves. Music was a tool that united musicians and people who enjoyed the performances.