Essays about Paris in Notes of a Native Son

 

Recently I opened Notes of a Native Son (originally published in 1955), by one of America's greatest writers, James Baldwin (1924 - 1987).  The Francophile in me made me turn first in this book of essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and Americans abroad to the two essays about his experiences in Paris, France.  

 

As I was reading Baldwin's Paris essays, I was thinking how sad that his early relationship with the City of Light could not have been more positive.  However, as a quote I once came across says,  "Everyone develops his or her own personal relationship with Paris."

 

One of Baldwin's two Paris essays, “Equal in Paris” reveals the hard times he had with surviving, adjusting to life, and making friends during his first year in Paris.  In the stark realism of this essay about Baldwin’s personal experiences, there are mentions of various places he frequented, including the historically literary landmark, Café de Flore:

… for as soon as I was out of bed, I hopefully took notebook and fountain pen off to the upstairs room of the Flore, where I consumed rather a lot of coffee, and as evening approached …

There is a general mention of the cafés of St. Germain des Près:

… in one of the cafés of St. Germain des Près, I was discovered by this New Yorker and only because we found ourselves in Paris we immediately established the illusion that we had been fast friends back in the good old U.S.A.

The Gare St. Lazare and Ile de la Cité are also referenced in "Equal in Paris."

The other Paris essay in Notes of a Native Son is titled “Encounter on the Seine:  Black Meets Brown,” which speaks to the differences between Africans’ and American Negroes’ experiences in Paris, based upon the differences in their histories.  Places such as Chez Inez, La Sorbonne, and the Place de la Concorde are mentioned in this essay.  
_________________________________________________________________*Note:  Baldwin's personal relationship with Paris, France, eventually became better; for he lived in the South of France for most of his later life, and he died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

Lester Young in Books, a Paris Recording, and a Museum Exhibit

Known as President of the Tenor Saxophone, Lester Young was one of the most influential tenor saxophonists of the Twentieth Century, according to scholar and educator Douglas Henry Daniels, who wrote the most definitive biography of Lester Young.

In his book, Lester Leaps In:  The Life and Times of Lester “Prez” Young, Daniels points out that Young’s music style was unique and Young was an individualist, always experimenting.  Daniels also informs readers that Young was a gifted musician, a superior musician, and that although he was a colorful character, he was actually a gentle, sensitive artist.  At times he was also aloof and elusive.

 

There's a jazz poem “Lester Leaps In” (from a book titled Something About the Blues, by American poet Al Young ) that speaks to saxophonist Lester Young’s personality.  It says:

Here lived a man so hard and softspoken/ he had to be cool enough to hold his horn/ at angles as sharp as he was heartbroken/ in order to blow what it's like to be born.                                                                                                 
The poet probably named his poem “Lester Leaps In” after Lester Young’s original jazz music standard of the same title.

According to another Al Young poem, “Prez in Paris, 1959,” saxophonist Lester Young had moved to Paris by 1959, when his health was poor.  He recorded the album “Lester Young in Paris” at Barclay Studios, on March 4, 1959.  He died the next morning.

A portrait of Lester Young is included in the American Cool Exhibit currently on display at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.  Lester Young was considered to have been one of those major American talents to have ushered in the concept of certain persons being “cool.” The exhibit will be on display until September 7, 2014.
 

On Mellowness and Flight

Ever wake up at dawn to the sound of a bird chirping outside your window?  This morning was one of those times for me.  My eyes opened slowly and I heard a bird chirping.  I thought about what a nice moment that was.  And for some reason, my next thought was a line I had heard somewhere before.  The line was:  ever heard Bird flap his wings?  That line echoed in my head, and then I thought:  Okay.  Where have I heard it before?  Where?  Then I remembered.  It was a line—actually two lines—from a poem about saxophone player Charlie Parker, who was also called Bird by his legions of fans.                                                                                                                                                     
I knew I had a copy of the poem somewhere; because I’d used it with several other poems in Conversations about Jazz Poetry, a public event I conducted last year.   Remembering where I’d filed those poems, I decided that a poem whose lines echoed in my head after I awoke to the sound of a bird chirping deserved to be pulled out of file and reread.  But I would pull it out and reread it later, after I poured my morning cup of coffee.

 

With my cup of coffee in one hand, I located my hardcopy file of jazz poems with the other hand and pulled out the poem, “Mellowness & Flight,” by George Barlow.  The line that had haunted me in a good way at dawn turned out to be two lines.

ever heard Bird/ flap his wings

The 19-line "Mellowness & Flight" begins and ends with the two (italicized) lines shown above.  And the poem compares Charlie Parker to: 

a bright blackbird / slicing blue sky

The poem asks us if we've ever heard Charlie Parker play the standard songs  "Laura," "Lover Man," and "Just Friends," and taken in Parker's mellowness.  The poet uses the bird-in-flight metaphor to describe Parker and asks us if we’ve ever felt like we were flying with him (Bird). 

Drinking my morning cup of coffee and rereading “Mellowness & Flight” have put me in a mellow mood.  Thoughts the poem have inspired in me have gotten my day off to a flying start.