Jazzonia: Jazz and The Poetry of Langston Hughes

Jazzonia: Jazz and The Poetry of Langston Hughes

Broadcast the week of 2/7/02

Right: Langston Hughes. Photo courtesy of the Red Hot Jazz Archive.

The Harlem Renaissance was a great cultural awakening that took place in Harlem in the 1920s, and Langston Hughes became known as its unofficial Poet Laureate. Hughes' poetry is full of the rhythm and romance of the jazz of that time and place.

This week on Riverwalk, our good friend, singer/actor William Warfield, along with the Jim Cullum Jazz Band, create a magical, atmospheric evening of jazz and poetry. The hour-long presentation combines Mr. Warfield's masterful readings of Langston Hughes' poems with musical selections by Duke Ellington and James P. Johnson, and the Spiritual Go Down Moses sung by Mr. Warfield.

Here are the poems by Langston Hughes featured in this week's show: Drums, Danse Africaine, Cabaret, Fascination, Laughers, Spirituals, Ma Lord, and the title work:

Jazzonia

Oh, silver tree!
Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

In a Harlem cabaret
Six long-headed jazzers play.
A dancing girl whose eyes are bold
Lifts high a dress of silken gold.

Oh, singing tree!
Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

Were Eve's eyes
In the first garden
Just a bit too bold?
Was Cleopatra gorgeous
In a gown of gold?

Oh, shining tree!
Oh, silver rivers of the soul!

In a whirling cabaret
Six long-headed jazzers play.

William Warfield's (left) best-known role was that of Joe the Dock Hand in the 1951 movie version of the Kern/Hammerstein musical Show Boat, in which he sang Old Man River. He also played the title role in a Broadway production of Porgy and Bess, and has recorded Aaron Copland's settings of American folk songs (with Copland himself at the piano), and appeared on the Sony Classics recording Copland Conducts Copland.

On the Riverwalk series, he often portrays (in their own words) classic jazz figures such as King Oliver and W.C. Handy, or he brings to life the narrative power of such great American theatrical works as Showboat and Porgy and Bess.

Additionally, Warfield is a frequent collaborator with the Jim Cullum Jazz Band on tour. For almost ten years, they have given live concert presentations of Porgy and Bess, and last summer they performed a Jazz Mass at the spectacular Grace Cathedral at the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. The Mass musical program featured a special performance of Duke Ellington's In the Beginning, God and Come Sunday. Much of the music from the popular Jim Cullum Jazz Band Mass program has been recorded and is available on the Riverwalk Jazz CD, Deep River.