This book came partly out of listening
to a lot of American jazz.
And in the process of doing it, I did research and hung out.
So that's sort of my imagination of how Billie Holiday might
have dealt with some of those fellows in her life.
This next poem is another kind of imagination
but it's actually words straight out of Ella Fitzgerald's mouth.
Every word in this poem, either is
a lyric from a song Ella sang, or something
that she said in an interview.
And yet, when I read those interviews
and listen to the songs with things underneath,
what she said that she never says directly.
There's a few people mentioned in this poem you may or may not
know.
Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé.
Major jazz singers.
And Chick Webb is mentioned in this poem.
And Chick Webb was the man who helped
Ella really make her break.
He brought her to his band and she didn't quite
look the part of your average jazz front woman.
And so, the advice that he gives in this poem
is the advice that he actually gave his band
about how to deal with a woman who look like her.
"How She Didn't Say It".
"It used to bother me when people I didn't know
called me Ella.
They ain't been blue.
No.
They should say Miss Fitzgerald.
Somehow, they never do.
You have to let them see the sweat.
Just don't let them see the feeling stealing down
below the ground you walk.
'Listen to the voice,' Chick said.
He said, 'don't look at her.'
Their eyes close and I'm rising up, Sinatra at my feet
like I'm his friend, his wet nurse.
Tormé calling me Ella.
'Ella', I'm called into nights I don't recognize.
My song, like a cash box, no change in their hearts.
But I'm up here already, have to do something.
My voice passes through them.
Shining, a knife."
Thank you.