Why I love jazz. An ad I wrote

for the 2004 Twin Cities Jazz Fest.

Below says it all. I suggest that jazz is the only thing in the book that is not stupid.

With John Olson, helped promote the last concert at the Prom Ballroom, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1987.

this ad won’t move you.

Cab Calloway with Martha and me.

Photo, Tom Berthiaume

Jazz Fest

SECOND QUARTER 2004

not like jazz. jazz says hello softly and then eight bars later introduces cats who fly you to the moon, bring you to green dolphin street or if you’re really lucky up those seven steps to heaven. jazz lifts you up when you’re down and when you’re up she wails on your soul until you blubber like a schoolboy and beg for more. this ad is black and white. jazz is black and blue and brown and purple and plaid and bold and a couple of colors that haven’t been invented yet. jazz lets the blind man see and the sighted see with eyes closed. this ad is just words. jazz is granite and whispers. polka dots and moon beams. it’s dynamic and reinvents itself with every chord change. jazz is a sound played so sweetly it lulls you

into actually being content for the moment. jazz is a chanteuse wearing her heart on her sleeve as she sings of love’s disappointment and you wish she were yours. it’s ten fingers moving across a keyboard so fast and furious that smoke rises along with your mood. jazz is a way of life. a way to more life. it’s cocktails and pumps, frim fram sauce with the oss and fay with shifafa on the side. and it’s america’s original music. this ad will be thrown away. but jazz will live forever. and you can experience it and all its variations for ten glorious days in june at the twin cities hot summer jazz festival. with multiple free venues in both saint paul and minneapolis you’ll find the jazz that moves you.