She plays jazz ‘cos she cannot play the blues
She plays jazz like a long distance runner with a pair of new shoes.
Like a child woman, wild woman, woman breaking loose. She plays jazz ‘cos she cannot play the blues.
She plays bass like a lover, fingering his heart; holds it in her arms and plucks its neck like a goose.
She plays bass like it was the humming of the earth, thunder in a cave, a growling deep inside her like a river of bad news.
She plays bass ‘cos she cannot play the blues.
She plays music like it was blood with fingers, like it was soul with a thump; like it was all that she had in her, all she knew how to do.
She plays jazz because she’s too precious, too young, too heartless, too new; too I-don’t-know, something - you choose.
She plays jazz ‘cos she cannot play the blues.

Via Falstaff