SOURCE: "Poetry and Jazz," in Chicago Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, Summer, 1977, pp. 22-9.

In the following essay, Fair compares trends in the development of jazz and poetry from the 1920s onward.

Even though they didn't mix very well when jazz was played as background music for poetry in the clubs and coffee houses of the later 1950's, the two arts have a good deal in common. Perhaps because of their emotional intensity, both seem to work best in short forms. And their force and directness owe much (but not everything) to technical virtuosity.

Some apparently simple poems (such as Nazim Hikmet's "Oh Living") or relatively unadorned jazz solos (such as Sidney Bechet's "Blue Horizon") can be extremely moving. But these are not to be confused with really simple poets or musicians, who, like Leadbelly or Bunk Johnson, are effective through a combination of raw talent, drive and sincerity. Both...