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                                                        STORYVILLE

                                            Notes for a poem on New Orleans & Jazz

                    New Orleans

                    You got trams like Melbourne

                    You got

                    Jazz like New Orleans

                    You got Jelly Roll

                    You got 4 bar then more

                    You got

                    Buddy Bolden

                    (his mumma scared)

                    You got

                    Spanish tinge

                    You got

                    Erotic motion

                    You got Jelly's great grandmother

                    You tell a

                    You the night watchman

                    You the night watch all right man

                    You got singin'

                    You got the piano

                    You got the Jelly Roll Blues

                    You got ravi music

                    You got Storyville

                    You got Jassmine

                    So sweet in the air it send you crazy

                    You call it jazz

                    You got film an speeded up motion

                    You got heat

                    An high emotion

                    You got Sidney Besche

                    The poet of New Orleans Music

                    Creole music

                    At 10 years old

                    At 16 you leave school

                    An bring your personality

                    To your instrument

                    You love the lonesome blues 

                    Through your horn

                    You find notes no-one

                    Even suspected were in that thing

                    You got the Victor Victrola

                    1901

                    No-one thinks of recording Jazz

                    After Buddy 

                    You have Freddy Keppler

                    Laughing through the wah-wah mute

                    In 1914

                    The Original Creole Orchestra

                    Hits LA

                    An busses to Chicago

                    He very big an very strong

                    Your mute fly out yo' trumpet onto the dance floor

                    It in the papers

                    It never

                    Happen before

                    You frightened other people steal your stuff

                    February 26th 1917

                    The Original Dixieland Orchestra

                    5 white musicians

                    led by Nick

                    La Rocca

                    Play Dixieland One Step

                    You play

                    Horses

                    You play

                    Roosters

                    You play

                    Around on record

                    First time in history

                    250,000 copies at 50 cents each

                    Then you got influenza

                    You got nervous breakdown

                    You got construction - no-one ever know

                    You play music

                    You got

                    Buddy locked up in the Jacksonville

                    Insane Asylum

                    His mumma

                    Get so scared she call police

                    He never play the horn again

                    You got

                    T' excuse me right now

                    I got ta

                    Get some sleep

                    You know what I mean?

                                                                                                   Lyndon Walker

                                                                                           Sunday, August 10, 2003

                                                                                                        6:21 PM.



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