Philip Larkin and jazz: from journalism to poetry

Philip Larkin wrote about jazz at times in contradictory terms but with a passion and devotion which probably have no equals in Post-War Britain, and which convey the sense of richness and the very excitement and pleasure the writer associated with this music, as it is witnessed by his writings included in All What Jazz – the collected edition of the reviews originally published in The Telegraph, where he was jazz critic from 1961 to 1968. In the present paper, we will read Larkin’s poetic achievements and in particular two of his jazz-related poems – “For Sidney Bechet” (The Whitsun Wedding, 1964) and “Reasons for Attendance” (The Less Deceived, 1955) – showing how, in their dialogical complexity and polyphony, they present features that allow us to rethink and rearticulate the poet’s relationship with jazz, exceeding conventional readings which consider Larkin exclusively interested in (and influenced by) traditional jazz, to investigate similarities between his literary style and modern jazz, and more specifically with the cool jazz of Miles Davis’ late Fifties masterpiece Kind of Blue.