‘You sound too sweet’ said salty Miles
To Chet – reportedly
For if he spoke one word per day
Sparsity assigned it extra weight
And this was half his style
‘Now there’s a white cat on the Coast
Who’s going to eat you up’ said Bird
To Miles the skinny sideman straight
From Juilliard – just to keep him on his toes
Remember nothing ‘here’ is permanent
‘Why are all Rome’s jazz clubs underground?’
Chet opined of Gregory
Corso in the Catacombs
‘When I feel I’m going to die
I hurry to the movies’ answered Gregory
Chet made soundtracks for the Roman screen
‘I gave to him three notes
He hands me back inventions of great beauty –
But the film they made about him?
That’s not him’
‘Gone Bird’ said Kenny Dorham on the stand
Some remarked he meant ‘Go On!’
New York flip-talk
For ‘take another chorus then another’
Sax hauled out of hock with string and gum
On the street the world connecting
‘Out of Nowhere’ with nothing
Cut flowers in ice-water buckets
Still bloom on the ring road to Rome
‘Little boy blue come blow your horn’
For the last lyric American voices
In Campo di Fiori and for
‘All the Things You Are’
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.