Myesha Jenkins - To Breathe Into Another Voice: A South African Anthology of Jazz Poetry

When Steve Allen accompanied the reading of the first paragraphs of Jack Kerouacs On The Road with familiar blues chords, many imagined the duo were doing something extraordinarily original. Yet, orature was the original setting for the public performance of poetry to living audiences. The poet not only composed his/her work but was also expected to perform it. Using every part of the body, now leaping, gesturing with hand movements, moving and even dancing in rhythmic patterns and indeed re-enacting the contents of the poem. In addition to their aesthetic value, poetics were a device employed to assist memory. Many find it difficult to recall prose we had read a few hours ago, yet most can recall and recite, very accurately, poetry heard and experienced a long time ago.

On our continent, the musicality of poetry is widely recognised. Music accompanying poetic performance is rooted in traditional practice, as is poetry integrated into musical performance. This anthology celebrates and builds on such traditions. Z. Pallo Jordan, former Minister of Arts and Culture Poetry and Jazz combine as naturally as strawberries and cream, chips and tomato ketchup, tears and tissues: they dip into each other rhythmically, emotionally, seamlessly. Each poem carries a line, stanza, or phrase that makes you nod in rhythm to its wisdom the wisdom of the jazz poets in exile, in apartheid, in struggle that recognises the broader aspects of South African politics and which spreads into the wider knowledge of the poetry and the people in the way that they view themselves and the way that the outside world views them.

To breathe into another voice reminds you of why you cannot help but love Stimela; will teach you of known and little-known South African jazz greats and the history of jazz in South Africa as it parallels South Africas social history. It also shows without telling the absence of womens voices. The stories of women musicians, if there were any, seem largely untold: singers barely recognised; the jazz history of women, like so many of our histories is invisible. As well as (re)discovering jazz and (re)discovering poets, we discover that prose poetry has found a calling as an expression of jazz accompaniment. Some names will be familiar, and we learn of other inter/nationally known poets and prose writers through their love of jazz. This book tells you, unreservedly, that the history of jazz is deep and the names of Coltrane and Coleman, which appear often, are part of South Africas telling of its jazz history, too.

That is what makes this anthology special. Its a vibrant contemporary social history of South Africa. Kadija Sesay George, SABLE LitMag and Anthology Editor Published by Real African Publishers
PO Box 3317
Houghton
Johannesburg 2041 First published May 2017 All the listed poets 2017 ISBN 978-1-928341-31-4 Printed and bound in South Africa Cover Art
Cover is of the painting, Musicians (2013-15), by painter and sculptor, Vincent Baloyi. Having spent years at Rorkes Drift, he also travelled on exchange projects to Europe and England. There he met musicians such as Hugh Masekela, Chris McGregor, Dudu Pukwana, Abdulla Ibrahim, and the Queenstown singer, Gwendolyn Sondlo, whose collective spirit is captured in this painting. Mr Baloyi currently works as a technical assistant in the Fine Arts Department at the Wits School of the Arts.

He also taught art at the Open School and Funda in Johannesburg. He lives in Soweto with is wife and four grandchildren. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of both the copyright holder and the publisher of the book. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Makhosazana Xaba Keorapetse Kgositsile Afzal Moolla Aryan Kaganof Selome Flow Payne Myesha Jenkins Barry Gilder Connie Fick Sedica Davids Keorapetse Kgositsile Harry Owen Myesha Jenkins Makhosazana Xaba Ayanda Billie Richard Quaz Roodt Frank Meintjies Kabelo Mofokeng Xitha Makgeta Mthunzikazi Mbugwana Bernadette Muthien Richard Quaz Roodt Xabiso Vili MoAfrika a Mokgathi Connie Fick Vangi Gantsho Myesha Jenkins MoAfrika a Mokgathi Natalia Molebatsi Phillippa Yaa De Villiers Keorapetse Kgositsile Eugene Skeef Lebo Mashile Malika Ndlovu Percy Mabandu LeratoRato Kuzwayo Keorapetse Kgositsile Mphutlana Wa Bofelo Steve Kwena Mokwena John Forbis Mphutlana Wa Bofelo John Forbis Ayanda Billie Percy Mabandu LeratoRato Kuzwayo Frank Meintjies Allan Kolski Horwitz Connie Fick LeratoRato Kuzwayo Zaheer Karolia Roux Wessels Steve Kwena Mokwena Ayanda Billie Frank Meintjies Phillippa Yaa De Villiers Natalia Molebatsi Richard Quaz Roodt Noleen Morris Lamelle Shaw Makhosazana Xaba Icebound Makhele Raphael DAbdon Mandy Poetician Ndaliso Lati Matjeni Gary Cummiskey Koleka Putuma Diana Ferrus Derrick Newson Vangi Gantsho Myesha Jenkins Sisa Nkosi Lebogang Nova Masango MoAfrika a Mokgathi Linda Ndlovu Makhosazana Xaba Keoropetse Kgositsile Harry Owen Sarah Godsell I ve been a lover of jazz music for over 50 years.

It started in college and saw me through my studies, marriage, divorce, travel and relocation half way around the world. I was a waitress in a jazz club for several years, which gave me repeated exposure to the different varieties of that music as well as the men (mostly) and women who make it. It was urban Black classical music that reflected migration, urbanisation, anger, resistance, freedom. That was jazz to me. After moving to South Africa in 1993, the local jazz clubs became my weekend haunts. But then an amazing thing happened: I began to write poems and to express my own creativity.

Some of my words were even written late at night listening to those musicians, inspired to make poems exploring those same issues I found in the music. I have come to understand that jazz and poetry stimulate me in the same way, nurturing my creativity and rousing my imagination and sense of beauty. Its such a natural discovery in a land of orality with a history of musical celebration. I have written many poems to jazz; Ive tried to capture the feelings it gives me in others, reproducing the syncopated rhythms that are the hallmark of jazz. And of course, there is much much more. But there is no doubt that my words have been influenced by that music.

I know that jazz is magic. It brought me back to life once. I was sick and depressed and had had no music in my life for three years. One night, I stumbled into a jazz club and something started to stir. I took out my notebook; it was like meeting an old familiar friend. The words flowed in jazz! The genesis of this book, then, is to explore the way poets express the influence of jazz in their lives.

I was curious about how other writers would express their connection to that music, did a Google search and found that all the references to jazz poetry as a genre were American and most were connected to individual poets. It was the same for South Africa (SA), only one or two people had even written about the jazz experience and poetry, certainly not in significant numbers to warrant an anthology. Keorapetse Kgositsile, the poetry laureate (and one of the contributors to this volume) stood out. My vision came into clear focus: to put out a call to poets for those poems and to collect them into an anthology. I felt very brave. Back to SA in late 2015: a call was sent out to the poetry community asking for their jazz poetry.

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