With The Jazz Poetry Anthology, this volume offers a comprehensive exploration of the history of jazz poetry. The Second Set gathers many poets omitted from The Jazz Poetry Anthology, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Arthur Brown, Diane di Prima, Henry Dumas, Nikki Giovanni, David Henderson, Anselm Hollo, Haki Madhubuti, Michael McClure, Larry Neal, Dudley Randall, Eugene B. Redmond, Carolyn M. Rodgers, Ntozake Shange, A. B. Spellman, and Jay Wright. The Second Set fills out the history of jazz poetry with poems written before World War II, as well as those from the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, and includes contemporary writers from a range of cultural backgrounds, including Ai, Rita Dove, Yusef Komunyakaa, Martín Espada, Joy Harjo, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Michael Longley, Mwatabu Okantah, Charles Simic, Lorenzo Thomas, Derek Walcott, Ron Welburn, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko.Embracing a wide variety of poems informed by jazz, The Second Set also includes statements of poetics by many of the poets anthologized. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

As an augmentation of 1991's Jazz Anthology, the Second Set is as impetuous and bent as a Thelonious Monk song, and, in a fusty, academic sort of way, at least half as enjoyable. It should especially please the jazz culture connoisseur. Feinstein and Komunyakaa, in trying to make up for their first collection's omissions, have created an exquisite mix of poetry, history and personal takes on the literary implications of the musical form. The book tells a unique, intertwined history of jazz and poetry, embracing poets as diverse as Hart Crane, Ntozake Shange, Rita Dove, William Matthews and Lorenzo Thomas. In all, about 100 mostly contemporary poets are included. As a group, their poems exhibit certain be-bop qualities: throughout, we get jarring, overshot allusions to musicians, writers and songs, as well as a building, panoramic retrospective of jazz greats like Monk, Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday. The editors have most certainly achieved their goal of inspiring "engaging discussions on the nature of jazz poetry." (Oct.) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

While individual poets have often been linked to jazz, this music's influence on 20th-century writing has rarely been seen in perspective. Unfortunately, this first large-scale international attempt to explore the relationship between the two forms disappoints. Some 132 poets are arranged alphabetically. Among them are Sterling A. Brown, Robert Creeley, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Langston Hughes, Carl Sandburg, and Leopold Senghor. The selection, however, is both too inclusive and too diverse. Dana Goia describes Bix Beiderbecke, but his stilted lines conflict with the music's rhythms; Heather McHugh's formal approach feels equally superficial. Individual poems seldom interact to form a larger statement; the ``music appendix,'' historically situating these selections, might have been a better organizational device. The statement of poetics, gathered from less than half the poets, are this volume's most valuable asset.-- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, ``Soho Weekly News,'' New York From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

This volume is a sequel to The Jazz Poetry Anthology (1991), also compiled by Feinstein and Komunyakaa. That there is remarkably little overlap between the two volumes is a tribute to the inspirational quality of jazz. This new anthology consists of far more than "remainders." It contains poets inexplicably omitted from the first collection, such as Larry Neal, Haki Madhubuti, and Notzake Shange (more, in fact, could still be added by these poets). Younger writers (e.g., Cornelius Eady, Paul Beatty) are included along with earlier poets (e.g., Hart Crane, e.e. cummings). There are a number of fine pieces to be discovered here, such as Thulani Davis's poems on Cecil Taylor and Mark Doty's elegy to Chet Baker, "Almost Blue." A helpful music appendix, with a listing of poems to individual musicians, is included. Recommended for general and academic collections. L. J. Parascandola Long Island University--Brooklyn Campus From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.