Jazz Poetry

6 profiles tagged Jazz Poetry, A-Z.

Jazz poetry originated in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, when poets began writing verse rhythmically and thematically informed by jazz and blues music, most notably in Langston Hughes's 1926 collection The Weary Blues. It is characterized by syncopated, improvisatory rhythms, call-and-response patterning, and blues-derived structures within the poetic line, and it is often performed aloud, sometimes live alongside jazz musicians. Beyond Hughes, the form was carried forward by Beat-era poets in the 1950s, including Kenneth Rexroth and Jack Kerouac, who performed and recorded poetry set to jazz accompaniment.