RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as gemcitabine and paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving gemcitabine together with paclitaxel may kill more tumor cells. PURPOSE: This phase II trial is studying how well giving gemcitabine together with paclitaxel works in treating patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVES: * Determine overall and progression-free survival probability in patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with gemcitabine and paclitaxel. * Determine the confirmed and unconfirmed response (partial and complete) probability in patients with measurable disease treated with this regimen. * Determine the toxicity of this regimen in these patients. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients receive gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes and paclitaxel IV over 1 hour on days 1 and 15. Courses repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients with a complete response (CR) receive 4 additional courses beyond CR. Patients are followed every 8 weeks until disease progression, every 6 month for 2 years, and then annually for 1 year. PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 65 patients will be accrued for this study within 10-13 months.