Dancing Between the Notes

About the Book

Most of these poems were written with specific jazz tunes playing in my head. As I wrote each poem, the lines sang themselves into fragments, time was displaced, and reharmonization occurred. What started as one thing gradually became another. The remaining poems were written with the song lines of a place or event or the rhythms of the road as guide. I wrote as a voyeur watching life from a safe distance, an eavesdropper, a “marginalien.” The links between poetry and improvised music are as ancient as language itself, and telling stories in new ways is fundamental to human existence. It is not a choice. I hope that I have captured the essence of the musicians’ world and the “marginaliens” found along the way.

About the Author

John Fenton is a music journalist and a professional member of the Jazz Journalists Association. He fell in love with improvised music, and poetry at a very young age and the rhythms of both are always with him. He fled school in order to obtain a better education and has been an obsessive reader all of his life. He is well travelled with an open minded world view; having worked at everything from ditch digger to secretary to various members of the New Zealand Parliament. He is married with three children and five grandchildren. He has written liner notes and provided photographs for Jazz albums. He also writes a popular Jazz Blog titled JazzLocal32.com