Friday

Oct. 12, 2001

The Fantastic Names of Jazz

by Hayden Carruth

FRIDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2001
Listen (RealAudio) | How to listen

Poem: "The Fantastic Names of Jazz," by Hayden Carruth from Doctor Jazz (Copper Canyon Press).

The Fantastic Names of Jazz

Zoot Sims, Joshua Redman,
Billie Holiday, Pete Fountain,
Fate Marable, Ivie Anderson,
Meade Lux Lewis, Mezz Mezzrow,
Manzie Johnson, Marcus Roberts,
Omer Simeon, Miff Mole, Sister
Rosetta Tharpe, Freddie Slack,
Thelonious Monk, Charlie Teagarden,
Max Roach, Paul Celestin, Muggsy
Spanier, Boomie Richman, Panama
Francis, Abdullah Ibrahim, Piano
Red, Champion Jack Dupree,
Cow Cow Davenport, Shirley Horn,
Cedar Walton, Sweets Edison,
Jaki Byard, John Heard, Joy Harjo,
Pinetop Smith, Tricky Sam
Nanton, Major Holley, Stuff Smith,
Bix Beiderbecke, Bunny Berigan,
Mr. Cleanhead Vinson, Ruby Braff,
Cootie Williams, Cab Calloway,
Lockjaw Davis, Chippie Hill,
And of course Jelly Roll Morton.

It's the birthday of novelist and children's writer Ann Petry, born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut (1908), who was the first African-American woman to write a book that sold more than a million copies. She grew up middle class in a predominantly white neighborhood, where her father was a pharmacist. She too became a pharmacist, after graduating from the Connecticut College of Pharmacy in 1931 with a Ph.D. She worked in her father's store for seven years, until she met and married writer George D. Petry. The couple moved to Harlem, where she got a job as an advertising copywriter for The Amsterdam News. In 1943, she was paid $20 for a short story, On Saturday, the Sirens at Noon, published in the magazine The Crisis. That story came to the attention of an editor at Houghton-Mifflin, who gave Petry $2,500 and a contract for a novel. The result was The Street (1946), the story of Lutie Johnson and her attempts to shield herself and her young son from the world outside their tiny Harlem apartment. The book was an immediate success, and sold more than one million copies.

It's the birthday of poet and educator Paul Engle, born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (1908). One of the first students to receive an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa was Paul Engle, who offered as his dissertation a collection of poems called Worn Earth, which had won the Yale Younger Poets prize. He is best known for his influence on academic writing programs as Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Iowa from 1941 to 1965, and as founder and director of the Iowa Writer's Workshop from 1966 to 1991.

It's the birthday of composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, born in Down Ampney, England (1872), who is considered the most outstanding composer of his generation in England. He created a revival in the art of the English folk song, of which he was a passionate collector and arranger. Some of his major works include Fantasia for Double Stringed Orchestra on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910), A London Symphony (1914), and the Sixth Symphony (1947). He also wrote several operas, including Sir John in Love (1929), based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, in which he incorporated the traditional folk song, Greensleeves.

It's the birthday of inventor Elmer Sperry, born in Cortland, New York (1860). His most famous invention was the gyro-compass, which revolutionized marine navigation. His gyroscopic auto-pilot became known as a 'Metal Mike,' the mechanical helmsman. Sperry, who founded the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the American Electrochemical Society, also invented a high-intensity searchlight and a new system of street lighting, and many other electrical devices.

It's the birthday of novelist George Washington Cable, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (1844), who has been called the first modern southern writer. His first works of fiction, including Old Creole Days (1879) and The Grandissimes (1880), contained overtones of moral condemnation. They also contained detailed descriptions of the colorful New Orleans life, and the Creole dialect. During his life, Cable published 14 novels and collections of short stories. But critics found his later works overly sentimental and melodramatic, lacking the passion and focus of his earlier stories.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show