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Jazz, Poetry, and the Black Arts Movement, 1960–1969

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Jazz, Poetry, and the Black Arts Movement, 1960–1969 Faculty of English Improvising Resistance: Jazz, Poetry, and the Black Arts Movement, 1960–1969 Richard Gethin Bateman Fitzwilliam College University of Cambridge April 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy i Improvising Resistance: Jazz, Poetry, and the Black Arts Movement,1960–1969 Richard Gethin Bateman Abstract This thesis is an interdisciplinary analysis of jazz music and poetry produced by African- American artists, primarily in New York, over the course of the 1960s, set within the broad context of the civil-rights and black-nationalist movements of the same period. Its principal contention is that the two forms afford each other symbiotic illumination. Close reading of jazz musicology in particular illuminates the directions taken by the literature of the period in a manner that has rarely been fully explored. By giving equal critical attention to the two artistic forms in relation to each other, the epistemological and social radicalism latent and explicit within them can more fully be understood. Through this understanding comes also a greater appreciation of the effects that the art of this period had upon the politics of civil rights and black nationalism in America – effects which permeated wider culture during a decade in which significant change was made to the legal position of African-Americans within the United States, change forced by a newly, and multiply, vocalized African-American consciousness. The thesis examines the methods by which jazz and literature contributed to the construction of new historically-constituted black subjectivities represented aurally, orally and visually. It looks at how the different techniques of each form converse with each other, and how they prompt consequential re-presentations and re-cognizations of established forms from within and without their own continua. That examination is conducted primarily through forensic close readings of records made between 1960 and 1967, which though of widely differing styles nevertheless can be said to fall under the broad umbrella term of 'post-bop' jazz, alongside equally close readings of poetry written primarily by members of the New York wing of the equally broadly-termed Black Arts Movement [BAM] between 1964 and 1969. ii For Mum, Dad, Mamgu, Dacu, Gran, and Uncle Haydn. iii Declaration of Length This thesis is 73,664 words long. iv Acknowledgements First of all, a disclaimer: the number of people I would like to acknowledge by name is so enormous that it would at least double the length of the thesis, and nobody wants that. In the space of a couple of pages, I will inevitably miss out some people who are deeply important to me and have played significant roles in this production. As an opening catch-all, therefore, I will say that if I have been in your presence at any point since 10 October 2013 and have had reason to smile, then you have helped me reach this point, and I am deeply grateful. The people I must acknowledge a little more closely, however, are those who have been there from the outset and those who have kept me sane. As more people know than is probably healthy, this thesis was written almost entirely on location in the Café at Fitzwilliam College. Therefore, to Magda, Attila and all those who have stamped my loyalty card and topped up my teapots; along with Donna, Julie, Jackie and all the others in the buttery: you've kept me going, and I will always be grateful. I would never have finished this if I hadn't had my myriad musical extra-curricular activities to escape to, and more to the point, to share with uniformly wonderful people. So, to all directors and members of the FCMS and King's Voices 2017–18, The Relate Cambridge Workplace Choir, Tudor Musical Comedy Society, The Big Crunch, Kol Echad, Lichfield Cathedral Choir and Chamber Choir, and especially Sarum Voices, Fitz Chapel Gang 2013–2017#bantz and The Handlers (love you guys!), I offer my profound gratitude for the music, the friendship, and the laughs. Likewise to the fellows, staff and students – undergraduate and, particularly, graduate – at Fitzwilliam College in the last five years. Never was the label 'friendly' applied so aptly to a group of people united only by a coincidence of timing and a quite ugly set of buildings; and never was there a better home away from home. v And then – to get down to a long list of actual names – the ever-reliables. In Newcastle: Nick, Andrea, Simon and Barbara. In Lichfield: Adrian, Richard and Tina, Stephen, Peter B, Ben and Cathy, Faye and Dave, and Matt S. In Cambridge: The 138- ers, the O-Road gang, Isabel, Millie, Maya, Pierre, Anna L, JFM, Hodge, Deepak, Eve, Matt N, Amalie, and Robyn. I count it a privilege to call you my friends, and I could not have got through this without your constant willingness to stop me: a) taking myself too seriously, and b) working, in favour of a cuppa (or often something stronger) and a chat. There is no thesis without a Supervisor, and it has been my great fortune to have discovered, met and worked with the best: Dr Michael Hrebeniak, one of the most intelligent people I have ever known, who – from his first entirely positive email about my very earliest, most tentative and least coherent thoughts to his approval of the final full-stop over eight years later – has been a phenomenal source of support and wisdom, a deeply judicious user of both carrots and sticks, and a privilege to know. Thank you, sir. And finally, to my extended family, of whom I have seen far too little in the last five years, and especially the five superheroes to whom this thesis is dedicated: my thanks and my love, always. vi Preface This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or is being concurrently submitted, for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or is being concurrently submitted, for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed 80,000 maximum word limit for the English Faculty Degree Committee. Notes on Music Sources and Musical Quotations The thesis makes reference to multiple audio recordings which have been sourced from a mixture of CD, digital, and in a very few cases, vinyl recordings of the author's possession, and from Spotify and YouTube. The sheer amount of such material and the variegated nature of its media makes the provision of a CD or Memory Stick for the examiners' reference impractical. It is, however, recognized that easy access to the material will make for a much more enjoyable and useful reading experience. To that end, therefore, I have compiled two public YouTube playlists which can be accessed via the URL's below. 1. Primary Recordings: https://tinyurl.com/ybj943va 2. Secondary Recordings: https://tinyurl.com/yato9wd2 The first of these contains the principal recordings under discussion, ordered according to their appearance in the thesis. The other contains all other records cited, vii according to the order in which they are presented in the discography. References and time-stamps within the text relate to the sources cited in the footnotes and discography. Transcriptions of musical quotations in sheet-music form have been kept to a minimum, owing to the difficulties inherent in forcing improvised music into a written system which was designed centuries earlier for very different forms of music. Those examples that are included are – unless stated otherwise – the author's own, transcribed from the cited recordings. A Note on the Poetry The primary poems and – where applicable – lyrics discussed in the thesis are reproduced in full in the appendix. viii Contents Introduction: 'What we are asking for is a new synthesis' 1 Chapter One: Identity Riffs: We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite 28 and Amiri Baraka's 'Black Art' Chapter Two: Cover Stories: John Coltrane's 'My Favorite Things' 65 and Sonia Sanchez's 'a/coltrane/poem' Chapter Three: New and Old Gospel: Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, 101 Steve Jonas' 'One in Three Musicians', and Jayne Cortez's 'Ornette' Chapter Four: 'Trane's Horn Had Words in It': Music and Text in 139 John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and A. B. Spellman's 'John Coltrane' and 'Did John's Music Kill Him?' Chapter Five: Contested Spaces: John Coltrane's Ascension and 169 Meditations; Don L. Lee's 'Don't Cry Scream', and Jayne Cortez's 'How Long has Trane Been Gone?' Coda: 'So What?' 211 Appendix: Poems and Lyrics 221 Chapter One: Max Roach, Oscar Brown, Jr.: Driva Man 221 Max Roach, Oscar Brown, Jr.: Freedom Day 222 Amiri Baraka: Black Art 223 Chapter Two: Sonia Sanchez: a/coltrane/poem 225 Chapter Three: Steve Jonas: One of Three Musicians 228 Jayne Cortez: ORNETTE 229 Chapter Four: John Coltrane: A Love Supreme 230 A. B. Spellman: John Coltrane 232 A. B. Spellman: Did John's Music Kill Him? 233 Chapter Five: Don L. Lee: Don't Cry, Scream 234 Jayne Cortez: How Long has Trane Been Gone? 237 Discography 240 Bibliography 244 1 Introduction: 'What we are asking for is a new synthesis'1 Not enough work has been done linking musicological concerns to cultural movements.
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