Reading Blue Notes, a collection of essays, poems and interviews by Louisiana-native poet Yusef Komunyakaa (1947), revived my old passion for jazz. At 18, after entering Julio Cortazar’s hallucinating universe in Rayuela (translated into English by Gregory Rabassa as Hopscotch), I became a total fan of Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis. But I had left aside Morton until Koumanyakaa’s book sent me back to Mister Jelly Roll’s piano, his syncopated rhythm, the powerful vibrations of his ragtime.
Among Morton’s more playful pieces like “The Pearls” or “Black Bottom Stomp”, there is a rather languorous melody, “Mama 'Nita”, which reminds me of the deep, dramatic style of flamenco. Morton composed it for Anita González, a Creole woman of Spanish ascend born,...
