Ask Me Now

Sascha Feinstein is Professor of English at Lycoming College, where he co-directs the Creative Writing Program and edits Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature. He is author of Jazz Poetry: From the 1920s to the Present (IUP, 1991) and has won the Hayden Carruth Award for his poetry collection, Misterioso. He lives in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

• ContentsIntroduction1. Better You Say It First / Amiri Baraka2. Those Upward Leaps / Hayden Carruth3. Returning to Go Someplace Else / Jayne Cortez4. Just a Matter of Time / Bill Crow5. Did Your Mama Hear Those Poems? / Cornelius Eady6. Legwork / Gary Giddins7. The House as Open Ground / Lee Meitzen Grue8. Respiration and Inspiration / Fred Hersch9. Stolen Moments / David Jauss10. Survival Masks / Yusef Komunyakaa11. Detroit Jazz in the Late Forties and Early Fifties / Philip Levine12. Where the Call Needs to Be Heard / Haki R. Madhubuti13. Mingus at the Showplace / William Matthews14. Consideration / Dan Morgenstern15. The Greatest Equalizer in the World / Hank O'Neal16. Levels of the Blues / Eugene B. Redmond17. Cante Jondo / Sonia Sanchez18. Ask Me Now / John Sinclair19. Makes Me Feel Like I Got Some Money / Al Young20. Something to Believe In / Paul ZimmerAcknowledgmentsIndex

"Ask Me Now is an excellent and engaging collection. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to learn more about jazz, about writing, and about the connections between writing and music. Volume 32, Issue 5, 2009"—Popular Music and Society"The interviewees cover a wide range from jazz-aware poets to literature-aware jazzers...many of the litterateurs not only have genuine enthusiasm for the music but seem to know an awful lot about it...Feinstein's agenda is all about proving that poets have a right to draw on jazz for inspiration.August 2008"—Brian Priestley, Jazzwise"No matter how much one might know about jazz and the ways contemporary writers make use of the music, this book is a find and a pleasure to read."—American Book Review". . . convey[s] the power of language within a framework of artistic expression that is both scholarly relevant and readily accessible to readers. . . ."—Metro Spirit"In looking at the relationship between jazz and literature, these interviews take up, among other things, the nature of jazz and its frequent neglect in the US. . . . [T]he book offers many original revelations from creative individuals who have had long experience in the field—musicians, critics, scholars, and record producers—and provides an abundance of information about poets inspired by specific musical pieces and musicians being inspired by works of poetry. The conversations with jazz critic Gary Giddins and his mentor Dan Morgenstern alone make this book worthwhile . . . Recommended."—Choice"In Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz & Literature. . . , saxophonist and English professor Sascha Feinstein gathers a stunning variety of musicians, poets, and novelists to discuss the engaging interactions between jazz and literature."—ForeWord"This is the most interesting, in—depth, valuable, and various account of the connection between jazz and literature ever put into print."—Ed Pavlic, author of Labors Lost Left Unfinished