Live Jazz by Marilyn Nelson

In Live Jazz by Marilyn Nelson, I feel that Nelson is trying to portray a deep appreciation for Jazz music. It took several times of reading through the poem to understand why she places so much emphasis on the wildness and behaviors of the different animals within the Zoo, but I feel that she uses the zoo animals to emphasize the power and captivating essence of Jazz music.

I have broken my anaylsis into two parts: description of animals and their behaviors within zoo and how Jazz music can bring the crazy life of the zoo to a standstill. Nelson starts her poem by going into detail about the animal qualities and behaviors that can be observed by zoo animals. She states " Oh, Africa in the ear" which I interpreted as the chaos of the sounds of varied animals that live in Africa. When we think of Africa we often times automatically refer to the varied and unique animal life that Africa encompasses. In using this line I feel that Nelson really captures the essence of the zoo on a typically day. Zoo's are crazy, loud, unique, and unpredictable. This all changes when the Jazz music is played. The recluse comes out, which is such a strong and powerful statement seeing as though hermits hate leaving their comfort zones. With this statement Nelson really illustrates the captivation that Jazz music has on the zoo animals. Gigi's face is pressed against the bars, Kubie diverted from his normal manner of laying on his back to contemplate what he was hearing, and the zebras ears twirled. I don't think that Nelson could have been more descriptive in her poem in order to illustrate the effect that Jazz music can have on animals. I think this is important because when something is able to control the chaos, wildness, and unsocialized animals within the zoo then I feel that that shows the strong manifestation that Jazz music can have on everyone and everything.

In the last section I want to anayle, I think it is extremely important to bring attention to the line " Suddendly their calls....shrank in their hearts, as they knew something more." It is animal instinct for animals to use their calls as a form of communication. Getting an animal to pay little attention to their call is basically like getting a human to stop talking and communicating with one another. A lot of human interaction is based on verbal communication so for something to stop communication among the chaos of calls within the animal world, I think that shows how strong Jazz music can impact someone or something. The final line of the poem " music built a cathedral in their senses" has such strong implications for what Jazz music does within a Zoo. Cathedral means a large and important church and for Nelson to use the world cathedral to illustrate the impact that Jazz makes on the animal senses, it shows how persuasive and captivating Jazz truly is. Within society, the church plays a huge role in impacting lives so when Nelson compares the music to a cathedral, I feel that she is making a direct claim that Jazz can impact life in a significant way.

Overall, I feel that Nelson writes this poem to really narrow in on the importance that Jazz music can play in the lives of humans. Although her poem is focused on animals I feel that Nelson uses the comparison of animals to show how Jazz music can tame even the most unruly aspects of our world, and bring serenity and admiration from all different types of listeners. I feel that Nelson did an effective job in highlighting the importance that Jazz music plays in life and she definately persuaded my point of view towards Jazz's music in a more positive light.