Everything Kaye...A Look Into Jazz

Mick Haupt/Upsplash 

As I was pulling out my women of jazz albums to research a blog, I stopped writing and began to listen. Nina Simone's Four Women, again, and again. Yes I could hear the backstory...slavery, hate, and oppression. I've heard them all my life, enslaved to those very words. As I listened, I heard my own song that's yet to be sung. Unable to wipe away the haze from the past. My arms are tired from all this fanning...the horizon might be far off but thank God it's there! As I sit here and write my own lyrics to add, I wonder what my daughters lyrics will be?

Four Women, Nina Simone

My skin is black

My arms are long

My hair is wholly

My back is strong

Strong enough to take the pain

Inflicted again and again

What do they call me?

My name is Aunt Sarah

My name is Aunt Sarah, Aunt Sarah

My Skin Is Yellow

My hair is long

Between two worlds

I do belong

My father was rich and white

He forced my mother one night

What do they call me?

My name is Saffronia

My name is Saffronia

My skin is tan

My hair is fine

My hips invite you

My mouth like wine

Whose little girl am I?

Anyone with money to buy

What do they call me?

My name is Sweet Thing

My name is Sweet Thing

My skin is brown

My manner is tough

I'll kill the first mother I see

My life has been rough

I'm awfully bitter these days

Cause my parents were slaves

What do they call me?

My name is Peaches

Portrait. Kaye 1999

My skin is yellow, black, and red

On many occasions, both have wished me dead

Yet here I stand

Fist against the wind

Indescribable is my strength

What do they call me?

My name is Kaye

My name is Kaye