Jazz Violin Poem by gershon hepner

JAZZ VIOLIN


There’s Louis Armstrong and the Duke
called Ellington, put on the juke-
box if you can recall the past,
the stars of jazz’s stellar cast.

Fats Domino was great, Leadbelly
the greatest, maybe, yet Grapelli
is in his own way, too, supreme,
though there’s no chocolate in his cream.

He plays improvisationally,
although prepared occasionally
to stroke the strings with razzmatazz
unparalleled in swing or jazz.

Although the man is eighty nine,
and needs a wheelchair, he’s like wine
and women as he plays his song,
his intonation’s never wrong.

Four fingers sliding as they slither,
his notes go hither first, then thither,
and all the world seems fine and dandy
when Stephan’s gliding his glissandi.

A hot potato and tomato,
a virtuoso with vibrato,
he’s bored, and much more than a little,
on any day that he can’t fiddle.

Try hearing, if you can, Grapelli
cut mustard in the Catgut Deli,
and then, if you for more are ready,
go South, and hear the sounds of Eddie.


Stéphane Grappelli, the most famous jazz violinist in the world, received a lifetime award at the Grammys on 2/26/97. He is he is 89 years old and wheelchair-bound. He died on 12/1/97, nine months after this poem was written. Will Friedwald mentions him in an article on the jazz violin in the WSJ, February 18,2009 inspired by a new CD by Eddie South (“Dark Angel Album Sets”) .

2/26/97,2/18/09