Jon Hendricks – By Monifa Brown
Keeping up with the cats
Always knowing what to scat
A wordsmith with gifts
Ohhh, how your gab uplifts
Telling our story with love and glory
Making history without mystery
Monk, Horace and Duke knew
Bird and Basie too
Free rein to put your pen to the game
The Father of vocalese you did it with such ease
A whiz ahead of the biz
A sophisticate with lyrical arithmetic
Droppin’ science with Lambert & Ross
Shaw ‘Nuff you knew how to floss
Taking the language of the horn and puttin’ it in plain form
Shedding light on notes that float
Double entendres riffs
Making it fit with your wit
Jet fuel moves
bluesy moods
A soulful resolution
Flawless elocution
A vocal revolution
Dressed to the nine, sounding mighty fine
Dapper hipster, keener than the next mister
Growlin’ low, honking loud
Falsetto soaring…Always alluring
You brought casts to their knees just as you’d please
Trading fours with poise
Jump up, make some noise
Slinging adjectives with magnificent force
Tossing nouns and showing who’s boss
Riding the beat like syncopated dancing feet
Swingin’ left hooks, a right, then a fierce upper cut
Pulling punches…lookin’ them square in the eyes
Another TKO!
