ColaJazz Foundation

"Lady Sings the Blues" is one of Billie Holiday’s signature recordings, and it’s a masterclass in vocal jazz.

Jazz helped reshape the visual arts. Artists like Romare Bearden and Jackson Pollock translated jazz's energy, rhythm, and improvisation onto canvas.

Colson Whitehead’s fiction often pulses with the spirit of jazz, shaping both rhythm and structure in his narratives.

Throughout American literature, jazz has been a storytelling tool. Writers like Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison didn’t merely write about jazz — they wrote with it.

Ralph Ellison, author of "Invisible Man," grew up playing the trumpet and carried jazz in his bones.

Allen Ginsberg, a powerful voice of the Beat Generation, drew deep inspiration from jazz.

When you think of the Beat Generation, you think of Jack Kerouac—and behind his writing, you’ll almost always find jazz.

Langston Hughes, the celebrated poet of the Harlem Renaissance, was deeply inspired by the music of Duke Ellington.

Langston Hughes, one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance, often described his poetry as “jazz written on the page.” He was deeply inspired by the rhythms, improvisation, and spirit of African American music.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" is as much a story of jazz as it is of love and ambition.