Fascinating Rhythm Reading Jazz in American Writing

I finally read and finished a book again. Its been a while, this book is called Fascinating Rhythm Reading Jazz in American Writing, its written by David Yaffe.  

"David Yaffe's writings have appeared in many publications, including the New Republic, The Nation, the New York Times, New York Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Village Voice, Slate, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is Assistant Professor of English at Syracuse University."

Basically he's an academic who likes jazz, like most jazz writers and critics. In this book Yaffe explores the relationship between jazz and literature, talking a lot about Ralph Ellison, Norman Mailer, Stanley Crouch, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, Langston Hughs, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Fitzgerald, and J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye (there's jazz references in that novel), and goes into the aspect of the pimp over the artist when it comes to autobiographies (Lady Day, Miles, and Mingus get the work over). I would say the book credits Ralph Ellison more so than the others, and for good reason, because he was an important writer in the jazz idiom.

The book explores jazz and race quite spectacularly, going into the idea of the White Negro, and showing and explaining the close relationship between blacks and Jews going back to the early 1900s before bands were integrated, it wasn't until 1922 that Benny Goodman recorded the first integrated jazz band. Blacks and Jews were quite simpatico you could say. It wasn't until later that Blacks started to write and describe their art, poetry, and music in their own words without needing the white man to describe it in order to sell to the intellectual elite, which was mostly Leftist Jews. 

The book taught me a lot about jazz, not really the musical side (as Yaffe says pimping sells more than selling practicing scales) but the book focuses more on the cultural and literary aspects of jazz. As much as I love the literary side of jazz as Charlie Parker said in his only live television performance (and only recorded live performance with sound), "the music speaks much more than words ever could." I go with that tact, although I do believe that jazz needs writers and the literate elite to keep it alive without it getting deformed and mashed into fusion and smooth jazz. The neoclassical movement in jazz should always be strong, and should be informed by an educated elite, just like how it was in the 50's. If we keep things like that then I think jazz will be on a good track to staying relevant in an increasingly pop and rap dominated American society. Got that? Good. 

I think Cornel West sums up the book really well.

"This is a fascinating and formidable response to Ralph Ellison's famous call for a 'jazz-shaped' reading of American literature. Yaffe's bold and often brilliant treatments of black-Jewish relations in twentieth-century U.S. culture, Ellison's own seminal works, poetry and jazz influences, and the autobiographies of Mingus, Holiday, and Miles Davis are major contributions to American and Afro-American studies."--Cornel West, Princeton University

Now I feel a lot more informed on the cultural side of the jazz universe. Feels good to be a gangsta (kisses his gold chain) 

Charles Mingus Beneath the Underdog

I finished this book a while ago and I wanted to record some of my thoughts on the book. Its an autobiographical (with some fiction thrown in, probably a lot) work written by Mingus himself and Alfred Knopf. Charles Mingus is a famous jazz musician, a bass player who is known as a composer and working with Eric Dolphy. I know of him more through Dolphy than his own compositions but his works have great artistic merit and he will not be forgotten because of this.

The one thing to note is that although this book is about a jazz musician most of the book has nothing to do with music at all. Rather, its more like poetry through life itself. We start with a young baby Mingus who's mother is fearful for his life because he'd been dropped on his head. Great opener, "I almost died as a baby."

The book goes on to display Mingus' young life as a youth facing off against bullies, learning to fight and stand up for himself, and most importantly finding love and woman. Oh, yes this guy was a womanizer. To the point that as an adult he was pimping for a while. But he had other and more musical desires. The parts about music mostly focused on the fact that although he was acclaimed as a good composer and had found fame, he was still quite penniless at times. Mingus described "what it feels like to be an artist – actually be it, in a world that is not only trying to stop you being an artist but has tried to stop you being human in the first place." (wiki/Beneath the Underdog)

A stand out story was this part where Mingus is up in Mexico and he fucks twenty Mexican girls within two hours. Definitely fake but still a cool story. The human body definitely can't handle that but the thought of it is sort of interesting. This book had tons of sex scenes in it. It was probably just as bad as Fifty Shades of Grey, except probably worse. There was some really raunchy sexual stuff in the book, things they don't even do in porn because it would be construed unacceptable. These parts of the book, although vulgar to a certain degree, has a certain poetic beauty to it. Is sex really all these things and more? For Mingus sex was of utmost importance. And not just the act of fucking. Its the act of making love that was important. I think that was the best thing I learned from these parts of the book.

The women in Mingus' life were numerous. At one point he was living with two chicks who were devoted to him. He pimped them for a while but eventually quit to focus on music. You get the sense that for him its not about one woman, but an infinite number. And all of them could important to you, not just a fuck. This idea was quite new to me although I've heard of men marrying multiple women in Islam so its nothing new. Interesting to see it in the context of a jazz musician.

Mingus' personality shines through well in this book. He is a man of complexity. He could be mean, angry, racist, gentle, forgiving, and loving all at the same time. Although the book focuses more on his anger and troubled issues I like to think of Mingus as a troubled man who found himself (intellect, art, musicality, and social ingenuity) through music.

If anything I found out about what jazz musicians are really like, not just some white guy's (critics) thoughts on them. And for that it is invaluable. 

All the Things You Could Be By Now if Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother

What are you reading?

I've been doing a lot of reading. I figured I'd write about what I've been reading partly to keep track of it all and also to share my interests with the readers.

First of all, I've been reading a lot of online news and local (physical copies) papers. I've been reading the Guardian, LaTimes, NyTimes, Wired, and LaWeekly. These are all good publications with such a vast array of literary styles. I've been keeping up on net neutrality through Wired and getting my politics from online websites. By the time I see the news later at night or at work I already know everything they're going to say-to a point. Sometimes they have different agendas but for the most part they are telling the same stories.

Then there's all my library books.

Yesterday I checked out Charles Mingus' autobiography. I'm fifty pages in and its quite the novel, very detailed, dark, romantic, sad, and its just the beginning.

That same day I also checked out a book called How Computers Work. That one is very technical so we'll have to see if I even make it that far in that one. I've picked up an interest in computers because of a book on art and aesthetic called Multimedia From Wagner to Virtual Reality. That book contains a forward by William Gibson (one of my favorite writers) and tons of essays by artists, musicians, and computer engineers on art and technology. It has a lot of computer history in it and from there I became more interested in computers.

Then there's Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. This book is about a priest in medieval Germany who converts aliens. The book is so prolix and unrewarding that it is super hard to read. This is the second time I've had it from the library and I'm determined to finish it, more as an accomplishment than because its actually good. Its very dense.

Lastly, we have Kindred by Octavia Butler. Butler's work can be sort of complicated too but in a rewarding sense that Flynn lacks. The book is about a black woman who gets sent back in time to the antebellum South to the time of her great-great-great relatives and stuff. Needless to say its pretty dark.