Body and Soul: Bob Kaufman's Golden Sardine

African American Review, Summer, 2000 by T. J. Anderson, III

The continued use of "variations" creates an even more important distinction when one considers how Kaufman uses the drum in the next stanza. Prior to the invention of the drumkit and the global influence of rock-'n'-roll, the drum had historically been viewed as a non-Western instrument. The phrase Drummer hummer establishes a change in the text's rhythmic structure. With it, Kaufman demonstrates another sort of variation. Rhythmically the phrase mirrors the poem's title, with the stressed syllables of cocoa corresponding to those of drummer. This percussive change that Kaufman introduces in the poem signals a musical change as well: from the bird songs of the first stanza to the human-controlled beats of the second. The drummer could be a person playing the drums or a woodpecker or similar type of bird executing a percussive tap. In addition to its vernacular definition of referring to something exceptional, hummer indicates a different manner (variation) of making music. The phrase could be connected to t he tonal vibrations of the drum. The poem closes with the poet finding solace through the music of "sweet morning." Although jazz is not mentioned in any direct way, there is the inference that "natural" music is more significant than the artifice of urban structure. Because jazz solos are seldom notated prior to performance, the emphasis on improvisation and spontaneity is highly prized. Thus, the music becomes more integral to human emotion and less contrived. For Kaufman, music becomes a means of emotional security and entrance into the rhythms of the day.

"Round About Midnight" is one of Kaufman's most anthologized poems. Its title comes from the well-known 1940 ballad" 'Round Midnight," composed by bebop innovator Thelonious Monk and subsequently performed or recorded by almost every major jazz figure.6 In examining the collaborative process that often occurs between jazz musicians, Paul F. Berliner discusses Monk's well-known 1944 recording of the piece with trumpeter Cootie Williams to show that jazz composition is often a communal enterprise:

According to some accounts, Williams added embellishments to the melody during the recording session. Consequently, his embellishments were incorporated as formal features of the melody when sheet music renditions were produced based on the recorded version. Subsequently, when Dizzy Gillespie recorded the piece in 1946, he added to its form an eight-measure introduction and coda that he had originally used as the coda of his version of "I Can't Get Started." By 1955, after the "imported introduction" had itself become a standard feature among renditions by various artists--including Monk himself--Miles Davis personalized the composition further by adding a three-measure interlude to the end of the first chorus, which other artists subsequently adopted as a formal part of the composition. (88)

Monk's nickname was "The Mojo Man of Bop" and, like Kaufman, he experienced several years of public neglect while he pursued his artistic vision. Paul Bacon was one of the first jazz critics to recognize Monk's importance to jazz. In a 1948 review of Monk's recording of" 'Round Midnight," Bacon describes Monk's playing in this way: