Review
"As an augmentation of 1991's Jazz Poetry Anthology, The Second Set is as impetuous and bent as a Thelonious Monk song ... It should especially please the jazz culture connoisseur. Feinstein and Komunyakaa ... have created an exquisite mix of poetry, history and personal takes on the literary implications of the musical form." Publishers Weekly "Amazingly often, a single image in a poem seems to achieve a clarity about the music that entire books fail to achieve. Even if you think poetry isn't your 'bag,' give The Second Set a try. It compels you to hear jazz freshly, from a multitude of new angles." Pulse! "This is an anthology to dip into and roam around in, especially when you're listening to the music that served to inspire these poets ... There's much in these pages to seduce aficionados of both jazz and poetry." Jazz Times "Recommended for general and academic collections." Choice
Product Description
With "The Jazz Poetry Anthology", this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of the history of jazz poetry. "The Second Set" gathers many poets omitted from "The Jazz Poetry Anthology", including Gwendolyn Brooks, Arthur Brown, Diane di Prima, Henry Dumas, Nikki Giovanni, David Henderson, Anselm Hollo, Haki Madhubuti, Michael McClure, Larry Neal, Dudley Randall, Eugene B. Redmond, Carolyn M. Rodgers, Ntozake Shange, A. B. Spellman, and Jay Wright."The Second Set" fills out the history of jazz poetry with poems written before World War II, as well as those from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, and includes contemporary writers from a range of cultural backgrounds, including Ai, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Mart'n Espada, Joy Harjo, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Michael Longley, Mwatabu Okantah, Charles Simic, Lorenzo Thomas, Derek Walcott, Ron Welburn, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Embracing a wide variety of poems informed by jazz, "The Second Set" also includes statements of poetics by many of the poets anthologized.
