Dan Jaffe

Dan Jaffe has written more than a dozen books. His jazz opera, All Cats Turn Gray When the Sun Goes Down (with Herb Six) has been produced in Kansas City, St. Louis, and New York. He also appears on the CD In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry (Rhino Records). Jaffe has performed his poetry with numerous jazz musicians, including George Salisbury, Milt Abel, Nicole Yarling, Frank Smith, Brian Murphy and Tim Whitmer. He currently lives in Parkville, Missouri.

Included below is a selected work by the visiting writer.

 

After Blowing All Night

They been blowing all night

and now they're talking,

which means less,

saying how the music

keeps you going

through the killer days,

how what comes out

of the horn's better

than anything on your plate,

anything out of a glass

or a needle, better

than anything except

maybe a woman

and that's short time

except a rare sometimes

and how chasing either

too hard can do you in

like that cat Antony or Bird

strangled on a riff.

(First published in Playing the Word by BkMk Books in 2001).