_Sweet Willie_ Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 Take some time away from the keyboard and computer screen and enjoy a great book! Ralph Ellison, who wrote the utterly fantastic novel Invisible Man, actually studied music when in college. During his career as a writer he wrote a number of essays, reviews, and profiles about jazz music and jazz musicians. They are collected in a fascinating anthology called Living With Music. ( Go here to buy the book if you\'re really interested. ) I'm about halfway thru this collection and I'm enjoying it immensely. There's a lot there to sink your mind into about music, the music industry, race, and American culture. If you're an avid jazz fan, player, or historian, I highly recommend this book. --sweets spreadluv Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars. Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Sweet Willie_ Posted July 14, 2003 Author Share Posted July 14, 2003 Okay, I promised a couple of quotes from the book. One of the topics that we've discussed here is the influence of the industry (or business) on music -- Ellison: "Cultural forms, especially forms of popular music, become trivialized through the efforts of promoters to package novelty. ...The jazz of the thirties and forties was not exhausted artistically; they were supplanted by promoters who were more interested in making money than in art. ...In this country the direction of culture is always being tampered with by people who have little concern for art, and yet their manipulations have consequences in other areas of the society, often leading to chaos in our lifestyles and moral disorientation." Here's a great quote about jazz, tradition, and identity: "Each true jazz moment (as distinct from the uninspired commercial performance) springs from a contest in which each artist challenges all the rest; each solo flight, or improvisation, represents (like the successive canvases of a painter) a definition of his identity as individual, as member of the collectivity and as a link in the chain of tradition. Thus, because jazz finds its very life in an endless improvisation upon traditional materials, the jazzman must lose his identity even as he finds it." Ellison also writes in one essay about the importance of the jam session as "the jazzman's true academy," where "he learns tradition, group techniques and style." The jazzer finds "his soul" via jam sessions after he "has learned the fundamentals of his instrument and the traditional techniques of jazz -- the intonations, the mute work, manipulation of timbre, the body of traditional styles." How often do we forumites talk about the importance of lessons and formal learning as well as playing with other musicians? Anyway, these are just a few samplings. It's interesting to read his comments about specific musicians like Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Mahalia Jackson, and Duke Ellington. It is also interesting to read about his prejudices against certain styles of jazz (e.g., be-bop). Again, I encourage you to hit the library or bookshop and pick up Living With Music. Maybe some of you will find it as fascinating as I have! Since it's a collection of essays, interviews, etc., it's easy to pick up and read a few pages and then put it down for later. Some of the essays are brief enough to read completely during a single subway ride. I read much of it on a few recent airplane trips I had to make. (DBB and JeremyC, you might find some interesting material to share with your students -- and you might also actually have some free moments in your summers to enjoy this.) spreadluv Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars. Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fonz Posted July 14, 2003 Share Posted July 14, 2003 i have a joke that i'm sure some would find funny, but literarily significant as it may be i'm sure some others will be grossly offended so i'll leave it out. to paraphrase that joke, Ralph Waldo (yes that really is his middle name, yes he was named after emerson, no i'm not confused) is the MAN. invisible man is a must read for anyone, and i'm talking about the fact that the book kicks ass, not just in some "we all need to be more sensitive" way. i own the cultural reference guide to invisible man. my creative writing professor assigned the book and the publisher gave him two copies so that he might be better able to decide whether or not to assign that along with the book itself. we were both surprised by some of the shit in there. i can't imagine what his take on a strictly cultural thing would be outside of fictional socio-political commentary. i'll be sure to pick this up. i have 2 rather long bus trips in my immediate future and harry potter will still be in hogwarts when i get back. i'll be sure to post my comments as soon as i've read it. Eeeeeehhhhhhhhh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Sweet Willie_ Posted July 16, 2003 Author Share Posted July 16, 2003 Originally posted by Bastid E: i'll be sure to pick this up. i have 2 rather long bus trips in my immediate future and harry potter will still be in hogwarts when i get back. i'll be sure to post my comments as soon as i've read it.Cool. I think you'll dig it. Please do post when you've had a chance to read some. spreadluv Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars. Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Sweet Willie_ Posted September 3, 2003 Author Share Posted September 3, 2003 In light of the recent thread offered up by Thingus, A deperate cry... , I bump this baby back to the front of the line. Some of the issues that have been raised in Thingus' thread are discussed in essays in this book that were written a half-century ago. Peace. spreadluv Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars. Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gord -B Posted September 3, 2003 Share Posted September 3, 2003 http://www.whsmith.co.uk/WHS/Go.asp?isbn=184046383X&DB=220 selling well at work (i work at smiths). Derek Smalls: It's like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water. http://www.myspace.com/gordonbache Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Sweet Willie_ Posted August 10, 2005 Author Share Posted August 10, 2005 Bump o' luv. spreadluv Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars. Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred TBP Posted August 11, 2005 Share Posted August 11, 2005 Doc, I'm currently reading "Open Sky: Sonny Rollins and His World of Improvisation" by Eric Nisenson © 2000, St. Martin's Press. If you're not hooked by the first chapter (one of the best attempts at a listener I've ever read to explain the nature of a jazz solo) it's best you put this down. From what I read so far, this was the only biography Sonny consented to be interviewed for, and only because Nisenson was a genuine fan and very accomodating. Nisenson's also done similar books on Coltrane and Davis. I've added your recommendation to my library request list for the weekend. I may not spend as much time reading as I'd like, but I do my best to pull away from the TV set when I can. Thanks for the bump! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Sweet Willie_ Posted August 13, 2005 Author Share Posted August 13, 2005 The Rollins book sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip! Peace. --s-uu spreadluv Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars. Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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