Jazz poetry

A genre and a culture

New to America

Defining the older generations

Influencing many for one hundred years

Music from a diverse source

Spreading across the country

Humble beginnings in New Orleans 

To stages in New York City

Born out of strife

Made great by a persecuted community

Jazz

New York, an idolized city

Once considered a center of American culture

Influenced by what was once high society

The city that never sleeps

Full of lights and noise

The Harlem Renaissance 

A cultural revival

Full of music and writing 

Elevating many to legendary status

Count Basie, duke ellington

People who changed music forever

Defining popular music for decades

Into the 40s

As the world war rages

Jazz continues

Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller

Swing and big bands

Dominating the scene

Throughout the war

In europe

And the rest of the world

A shift in the genre

Less pop

More of a musicians kind of music

Branching out into Latin

Progressive, and Bebop

New genres come up

And jazz struggles to continue

Finding new life 

In a fusion of genres

Funk and rock fusion

A slight revival 

But still not enough

Many of the great jazz artists are gone

Duke Ellington, Count Basie

And many more

As jazz has lost what it once had

Now changed greatly

So different from its roots