Blues for Bird
Martin Gray
Review by Alyce Wilson

In an ambitious undertaking, Martin Gray has written a verse biography of jazz great Charlie Parker.

Blues for Bird contains an impressive array of biographical facts about the legendary saxophonist, nicknamed Bird. Gray has clearly done his research, which is not surprising, given that he is a scholar and professor.

The prosody (poetic form), however, seems inappropriate for the subject.

Blues for Bird is a verse narrative in iambic trimeters or syncopated hexameters. This produces a rigid, sing-songy feel, entirely ill-suited for a work about a great jazz musician gifted in improvisation.

As Gray writes:

Bop music was revolt
against the big band sound
against arrangers and
their ersatz harmonies
saccharine at best
no Tin Pan Alley tropes
for stylish bop restores
an artist's confidence,
makes him musical,
an instrumentalist
essential to the whole,
his play spontaneous
in fresh experiment
once more intuitive
inventively alert
with new tools, concepts, sounds.

As this passage demonstrates, the meaning does not fit the form. The sterile symmetry of this passage is the antithesis to rebellious bop music, much like Alexander Pope's translation of "The Odyssey," whose rigid rhyming couplets were carefully crafted but wrong for his chosen material.

Jazz fans looking for an unconventional biography of the great Charlie Parker will learn a great deal; but for those seeking poetry that matches Bird's musical passion, Blues for Bird disappoints.

Santa Monica Press; ISBN 1891661205 (sample chapter)