Thursday, January 7, 2010

Preserving Jazz with my niece

Eleanor,
ignore
where these other folks are clapping
and tapping
the floor,

and listen to the drummer.

hear them cymbals roar.

one TWO
three FOUR

listen to how he rolls the snare
outta nowhere
back into those beats

one TWO
three FOUR

we may be
the only TWO
(no, that nice older Black man makes)
three
clapping on FOUR

but we're the only ones

playing with the band.

2 comments:

  1. ah, northerners... they always want to clap on the downbeat...

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  2. General Anna, do you really think of that as a north/south thing? Do white people in the south and in texas clap on 2/4?

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