Prizes of Jazz at Lincoln Center tix for this weekend and dvds of Wynton Marsalis with Willie Nelson for the best blues lyrics or prose poem will be determined at 12:01 tonight (11/11/09). Several stunning (!?!) efforts have been received — via the comments box below — but I’m not publishing any of them until all the tries are in and the winners have been chosen. Is it hard to write a blues lyric? See my examples from yesterday, or search the web for classics, which are plentiful. Three to five choruses fitting a standard 12-bar blues form, or a bluesy prose poem of 100 to 150 words are what I want to see — alto sax soulman Maceo Parker playing in the elegant Allen Room, and Wynton leading the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in music by Mary Lou Williams, with featured soloists Geri Allen and Geoff Keezer are first prizes; second and third are dvds of Wynton and Willie (with guest Norah Jones), autographed by Mr. Jazz at Lincoln Center himself.Â
I didn’t send my entry to see a weekend show
Didn’t send my entry to hear ol’ Maceo blow
Now it’s Saturday, I’m lonely, and got no place to go.
I coulda been at Lincoln Center, listening with the jazz elite
The Allen Room or Rose Hall, as music halls they’re sweet.
Could be watching Wynton ‘n’ Willie, even that would be a treat.
If I’d writ a blues or poem, I wouldn’t be here now
If I’d write a blues or poem, I wouldn’t be here now.
Awful glad I had a chance though, thanks to Mandel anyhow.