WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.910 align:middle line:84% This book came partly out of listening 00:00:02.910 --> 00:00:06.210 align:middle line:90% to a lot of American jazz. 00:00:06.210 --> 00:00:11.820 align:middle line:84% And in the process of doing it, I did research and hung out. 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:15.510 align:middle line:84% So that's sort of my imagination of how Billie Holiday might 00:00:15.510 --> 00:00:18.400 align:middle line:84% have dealt with some of those fellows in her life. 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:21.990 align:middle line:84% This next poem is another kind of imagination 00:00:21.990 --> 00:00:24.930 align:middle line:84% but it's actually words straight out of Ella Fitzgerald's mouth. 00:00:24.930 --> 00:00:26.580 align:middle line:84% Every word in this poem, either is 00:00:26.580 --> 00:00:29.550 align:middle line:84% a lyric from a song Ella sang, or something 00:00:29.550 --> 00:00:31.080 align:middle line:90% that she said in an interview. 00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:33.390 align:middle line:84% And yet, when I read those interviews 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:35.370 align:middle line:84% and listen to the songs with things underneath, 00:00:35.370 --> 00:00:38.037 align:middle line:84% what she said that she never says directly. 00:00:38.037 --> 00:00:40.620 align:middle line:84% There's a few people mentioned in this poem you may or may not 00:00:40.620 --> 00:00:41.120 align:middle line:90% know. 00:00:41.120 --> 00:00:42.930 align:middle line:90% Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé. 00:00:42.930 --> 00:00:44.540 align:middle line:90% Major jazz singers. 00:00:44.540 --> 00:00:47.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.130 align:middle line:84% And Chick Webb is mentioned in this poem. 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:52.740 align:middle line:84% And Chick Webb was the man who helped 00:00:52.740 --> 00:00:54.780 align:middle line:90% Ella really make her break. 00:00:54.780 --> 00:00:57.090 align:middle line:84% He brought her to his band and she didn't quite 00:00:57.090 --> 00:00:59.980 align:middle line:84% look the part of your average jazz front woman. 00:00:59.980 --> 00:01:03.150 align:middle line:84% And so, the advice that he gives in this poem 00:01:03.150 --> 00:01:06.330 align:middle line:84% is the advice that he actually gave his band 00:01:06.330 --> 00:01:10.440 align:middle line:84% about how to deal with a woman who look like her. 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:13.632 align:middle line:90% "How She Didn't Say It". 00:01:13.632 --> 00:01:16.410 align:middle line:84% "It used to bother me when people I didn't know 00:01:16.410 --> 00:01:18.420 align:middle line:90% called me Ella. 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:19.950 align:middle line:90% They ain't been blue. 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:21.150 align:middle line:90% No. 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:24.720 align:middle line:90% They should say Miss Fitzgerald. 00:01:24.720 --> 00:01:28.650 align:middle line:90% Somehow, they never do. 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:30.450 align:middle line:84% You have to let them see the sweat. 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:33.660 align:middle line:84% Just don't let them see the feeling stealing down 00:01:33.660 --> 00:01:36.960 align:middle line:90% below the ground you walk. 00:01:36.960 --> 00:01:40.050 align:middle line:84% 'Listen to the voice,' Chick said. 00:01:40.050 --> 00:01:43.920 align:middle line:90% He said, 'don't look at her.' 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:49.230 align:middle line:84% Their eyes close and I'm rising up, Sinatra at my feet 00:01:49.230 --> 00:01:52.980 align:middle line:84% like I'm his friend, his wet nurse. 00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:56.190 align:middle line:90% Tormé calling me Ella. 00:01:56.190 --> 00:02:00.360 align:middle line:84% 'Ella', I'm called into nights I don't recognize. 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:06.780 align:middle line:84% My song, like a cash box, no change in their hearts. 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:13.350 align:middle line:84% But I'm up here already, have to do something. 00:02:13.350 --> 00:02:17.010 align:middle line:90% My voice passes through them. 00:02:17.010 --> 00:02:19.230 align:middle line:90% Shining, a knife." 00:02:19.230 --> 00:02:24.510 align:middle line:90% 00:02:24.510 --> 00:02:26.450 align:middle line:90% Thank you.