May 17, 2002

Getting in Tune With a 12-Bar Bard

By DAVID YAFFE

Langston Hughes wished to be remembered not with a poem but with a song. And late last month, at Town Hall in New York City, the saxophonist Joshua Redman honored the poet's request.

Hughes's centenary was being celebrated in words and music in an event, sponsored by the PEN/American Center, titled "Langston Hughes: A Twentieth Century Masters Tribute." Hughes, who once urged the Viking Press to bill him as "the original jazz poet," had wanted Duke Ellington's "Do Nothing Till You Hear