(no subject)
to the people who watned to read my essay on ralph ellison and jazz. here it is. second draft. one more. still not done.
some of hte format and 4 line quote indentations will get messed up but w/e who cares.
Michael O’Brien
Expository Writing
First Draft
Ms. Savini
Art for Man’s Sake
Ralph Ellison - easily the most important jazz writer and critic; in the complexity of his prose he demonstrates an unmatched ability in making jazz from the written word, using phrases, complex sentences, hyphens, and parenthesis to give his writing a sense of spontaneity, yet elegance endemic of a good jazz solo. As a well structured solo tells a story, he adroitly paints stories portraying the romantic picture of smoke-filled jazz clubs cramped with dancers so well that one can almost hear the brasses blare and the rhythm section swing. With his unique style, Ellison transcends the gap between music and the written word, succeeding in what possibly no other writer has before. Ellison truly lived with his music - it was just as much apart of him as any appendage, and through jazz he was able to see deep into art and the emotions it embraces.
In jazz, Ellison saw that the main concept of art is to convey a human emotion - and that any given emotion could be displayed in completely different types of art. Ellison proposes that great art is the manifestation of the deepest human concepts and emotions. Ellison expands on how different arts can convey similar themes:
One learns by moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar, and while it might sound incongruous at first, the step from the spirituality of the spirituals to that of the Beethoven of the symphonies or the Bach of the chorales is not as vast as it seems. Nor is the romanticism of a Bhrams or a Chopin completely unrelated to that of a Louis Armstrong (Living With Music 14)
This is concept is again highlighted again in the piece “Flamenco”, where Ellison makes the same comparison between the blues and flamenco, he states: “Perhaps what attracts us most to flamenco, as it does to the blues, is the note of unillusioned affirmation of humanity which it embodies” (Flamenco 99-100). Ellison developed the principal of his prose upon his belief that different styles of art could convey the same concepts , modeling it after music in order to capture what music so easily does.
The true genius of Ellison’s work is undoubtedly his prose, and how he facilely bridges the medium gap of music and the written word. Ellison’s prose could be compared to, perhaps, the style of one of his favorite musicians, Lester Young, who with a light tone and laid back attitude floated over the beat, with the same sense of ease Ellison is able to turn out words as fluid as notes. Ellison often phrases his statements using hyphens, as the improvising jazz musician phrases his lines; and most skillfully Ellison has mastered the use of the long, descriptive sentence, mocking a long line of a jazz musician. His choice of words can often time send chills of fervor up ones spine:
“...beneath the dim rosy lights of the bar in the smoke-veiled room, and who (the patrons at Minton’s Playhouse) shared, night after night, the mysterious spell created by the talk, the laughter, grease paint, powder, perfume, sweat, alcohol, and food - all blended and simmering, like a stew on the restaurant range, and brought to a sustained moment of elusive meaning by the timbres and accents of musical instruments locked in passionate recitative” (The Golden Age, Time Past 51-52).
Ellison is enforcing his concept of different arts conveying the same emotions in his own prose, as the emotions invoked by this passage are similar to those invoked while actually listening to jazz; and by doing so in this instance and many others, Ellison is becoming living proof of his own idea.
Ellison also concerned himself with the idea that music, or in a broader sense, art, will bring you to an elevated level. Being that art represents humanity to Ellison, he feels that in order to achieve a high level of existence we must do it through the most plebeian thing a human can posses - our emotions and natural instincts. This is the paradox that is art: the notion that the banal can become the sophisticated, that we can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. While echoing an aria of Handel, Ellison leaves us with his sublime advice at the end of “Living With Music“: “Art thou troubled? Music will not only calm, it will ennoble thee” (Living With Music 14). Here lies the impetus behind Ellison’s writing: the idea that he must somehow redeem the lost masses through turning his prose to music, and through the prevention of what he views as lesser art from reaching people, this attempt at disparaging what he would view as unsuitable art would prompt his criticism towards bebop.
By recognizing that through art we are ennobled, Ellison’s reason for writing was mainly to create art, which even while subtlety proposing these complex ideas he indefinitely succeeded at. However, the purpose of this art was by no means “art for art’s sake”, but rather art for man’s sake; and in his swinging prose Ellison wished to somehow elevate the state of his readers as he had been elevated by music. However, the advent of modern jazz, which is quite the antithesis of Ellison‘s idea of art, prompted Ellison to take on a new form of writing and beset this new genre with all the ferocity his pen could muster.
Ellison’s second role as a writer was the critic, and while writing such pieces such as “Golden Age, Time Past” and “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz” Ellison displays much more of his sarcastic, witty side. His contempt for this new “bebop” movement is in part due to bebop’s roots, as it was a music created based on racial and artistic pretensions of a group of talented, black, progressive musicians who wished to set themselves apart from who they viewed as less talented white musicians. In turn, an art form was born in which expression took the backseat to demonstration of instrumental virtuosity. This genre, and its main exponent, Charlie Parker were subject to caustic criticism from Ellison.
Charlie Parker was the saxophonist-innovator-junkie, who was by far the most important figure of the bebop movement. When one compares their artistic intentions, Ellison and Parker were quite opposites: Ellison who aspired to ennoble his readers, and Parker who wished to perpetuate the pretensions on which bebop was formed. Parker was aspiring to widen the gap between the artist and performer, even based on solely Jazz esthetics, Ellison strongly disagreed with Parker’s abandoning of the role of the entertainer:
“Certain older jazzmen possessed a clearer idea of the division between their identities as performers and private individuals. Offstage and while playing in the ensemble they carried themselves like college professors or high church deacons; when soloing they donned the comic mask and went into frenzied pantomimes of hotness-even when playing ‘cool’ - and when done, dropped the mask and returned to their chairs with dignity (On Bird, Bird- Watching, and Jazz 70).
On top of this, Ellison credited Parker to sparking a movement people who imitated Parker’s reckless life of drug abuse and drinking. This was more than enough to merit Ellison’s negative attention in “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz”.
In another attack on bop, Ellison attempts to clarify mysteries surrounding Minton’s Playhouse, the birthplace of bop. While attempting to sort out the legend from the truth, Ellison offer us a rather different (and perhaps biased) view of what happened at Minton's: “It was a texture of fragments, repetitive, nervous, not fully formed, its melodic lines underground, secret and taunting, its riffs jeering -”Salt peanuts! Salt Peanuts” - its timbre flat or shrill with a minimum of thrilling vibrato” (The Golden Age, Time Past 55). In essays like “The Golden Age, Time Past”, there is no saying whether Ellison is merely attempting to use any possible weapon available to denounce modern jazz, or is in actuality telling the truth of his recollections of Minton’s, but regardless, his dislike for the music is due to the pretentious intentions of its artists.
It is important to note that in his denouncement of bebop, Ellison never abandons his attempt to bridge the gap between his prose and jazz. “The Golden Age, Time Past“, and “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz”, the two critical pieces share a prose of the same integrity as “Flamenco”, and “Living With Music” the two dedicated to other subjects. This is demonstrative of Ellison’s genius, showing how he can create a credible argument against an artistic statement, yet still produce worthwhile art himself.
What matters most to Ellison is indefinitely art, he is concerned the glorification of humanity, which is exhibited in what he feels is suitable art. Ellison personally concerns himself with elevating his readers into a higher state of being he himself has encountered by music, by striving toward a music like prose. It is likely that Ellison sees the world as a broken place, and is taking the huge responsibility of repairing it upon himself. Ellison was a writer who wrote to make the extraordinary from the ordinary, the quintessence of a great artist, by taking the common and making it unique. The significance of an author like Ellison is that he skillfully reminds us of how we can aspire toward our own personal climaxes, which is done through embracing our very nature; the function of art is to serve as a medium in which we can grasp this difficult concept of what we are.
some of hte format and 4 line quote indentations will get messed up but w/e who cares.
Michael O’Brien
Expository Writing
First Draft
Ms. Savini
Art for Man’s Sake
Ralph Ellison - easily the most important jazz writer and critic; in the complexity of his prose he demonstrates an unmatched ability in making jazz from the written word, using phrases, complex sentences, hyphens, and parenthesis to give his writing a sense of spontaneity, yet elegance endemic of a good jazz solo. As a well structured solo tells a story, he adroitly paints stories portraying the romantic picture of smoke-filled jazz clubs cramped with dancers so well that one can almost hear the brasses blare and the rhythm section swing. With his unique style, Ellison transcends the gap between music and the written word, succeeding in what possibly no other writer has before. Ellison truly lived with his music - it was just as much apart of him as any appendage, and through jazz he was able to see deep into art and the emotions it embraces.
In jazz, Ellison saw that the main concept of art is to convey a human emotion - and that any given emotion could be displayed in completely different types of art. Ellison proposes that great art is the manifestation of the deepest human concepts and emotions. Ellison expands on how different arts can convey similar themes:
One learns by moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar, and while it might sound incongruous at first, the step from the spirituality of the spirituals to that of the Beethoven of the symphonies or the Bach of the chorales is not as vast as it seems. Nor is the romanticism of a Bhrams or a Chopin completely unrelated to that of a Louis Armstrong (Living With Music 14)
This is concept is again highlighted again in the piece “Flamenco”, where Ellison makes the same comparison between the blues and flamenco, he states: “Perhaps what attracts us most to flamenco, as it does to the blues, is the note of unillusioned affirmation of humanity which it embodies” (Flamenco 99-100). Ellison developed the principal of his prose upon his belief that different styles of art could convey the same concepts , modeling it after music in order to capture what music so easily does.
The true genius of Ellison’s work is undoubtedly his prose, and how he facilely bridges the medium gap of music and the written word. Ellison’s prose could be compared to, perhaps, the style of one of his favorite musicians, Lester Young, who with a light tone and laid back attitude floated over the beat, with the same sense of ease Ellison is able to turn out words as fluid as notes. Ellison often phrases his statements using hyphens, as the improvising jazz musician phrases his lines; and most skillfully Ellison has mastered the use of the long, descriptive sentence, mocking a long line of a jazz musician. His choice of words can often time send chills of fervor up ones spine:
“...beneath the dim rosy lights of the bar in the smoke-veiled room, and who (the patrons at Minton’s Playhouse) shared, night after night, the mysterious spell created by the talk, the laughter, grease paint, powder, perfume, sweat, alcohol, and food - all blended and simmering, like a stew on the restaurant range, and brought to a sustained moment of elusive meaning by the timbres and accents of musical instruments locked in passionate recitative” (The Golden Age, Time Past 51-52).
Ellison is enforcing his concept of different arts conveying the same emotions in his own prose, as the emotions invoked by this passage are similar to those invoked while actually listening to jazz; and by doing so in this instance and many others, Ellison is becoming living proof of his own idea.
Ellison also concerned himself with the idea that music, or in a broader sense, art, will bring you to an elevated level. Being that art represents humanity to Ellison, he feels that in order to achieve a high level of existence we must do it through the most plebeian thing a human can posses - our emotions and natural instincts. This is the paradox that is art: the notion that the banal can become the sophisticated, that we can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. While echoing an aria of Handel, Ellison leaves us with his sublime advice at the end of “Living With Music“: “Art thou troubled? Music will not only calm, it will ennoble thee” (Living With Music 14). Here lies the impetus behind Ellison’s writing: the idea that he must somehow redeem the lost masses through turning his prose to music, and through the prevention of what he views as lesser art from reaching people, this attempt at disparaging what he would view as unsuitable art would prompt his criticism towards bebop.
By recognizing that through art we are ennobled, Ellison’s reason for writing was mainly to create art, which even while subtlety proposing these complex ideas he indefinitely succeeded at. However, the purpose of this art was by no means “art for art’s sake”, but rather art for man’s sake; and in his swinging prose Ellison wished to somehow elevate the state of his readers as he had been elevated by music. However, the advent of modern jazz, which is quite the antithesis of Ellison‘s idea of art, prompted Ellison to take on a new form of writing and beset this new genre with all the ferocity his pen could muster.
Ellison’s second role as a writer was the critic, and while writing such pieces such as “Golden Age, Time Past” and “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz” Ellison displays much more of his sarcastic, witty side. His contempt for this new “bebop” movement is in part due to bebop’s roots, as it was a music created based on racial and artistic pretensions of a group of talented, black, progressive musicians who wished to set themselves apart from who they viewed as less talented white musicians. In turn, an art form was born in which expression took the backseat to demonstration of instrumental virtuosity. This genre, and its main exponent, Charlie Parker were subject to caustic criticism from Ellison.
Charlie Parker was the saxophonist-innovator-junkie, who was by far the most important figure of the bebop movement. When one compares their artistic intentions, Ellison and Parker were quite opposites: Ellison who aspired to ennoble his readers, and Parker who wished to perpetuate the pretensions on which bebop was formed. Parker was aspiring to widen the gap between the artist and performer, even based on solely Jazz esthetics, Ellison strongly disagreed with Parker’s abandoning of the role of the entertainer:
“Certain older jazzmen possessed a clearer idea of the division between their identities as performers and private individuals. Offstage and while playing in the ensemble they carried themselves like college professors or high church deacons; when soloing they donned the comic mask and went into frenzied pantomimes of hotness-even when playing ‘cool’ - and when done, dropped the mask and returned to their chairs with dignity (On Bird, Bird- Watching, and Jazz 70).
On top of this, Ellison credited Parker to sparking a movement people who imitated Parker’s reckless life of drug abuse and drinking. This was more than enough to merit Ellison’s negative attention in “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz”.
In another attack on bop, Ellison attempts to clarify mysteries surrounding Minton’s Playhouse, the birthplace of bop. While attempting to sort out the legend from the truth, Ellison offer us a rather different (and perhaps biased) view of what happened at Minton's: “It was a texture of fragments, repetitive, nervous, not fully formed, its melodic lines underground, secret and taunting, its riffs jeering -”Salt peanuts! Salt Peanuts” - its timbre flat or shrill with a minimum of thrilling vibrato” (The Golden Age, Time Past 55). In essays like “The Golden Age, Time Past”, there is no saying whether Ellison is merely attempting to use any possible weapon available to denounce modern jazz, or is in actuality telling the truth of his recollections of Minton’s, but regardless, his dislike for the music is due to the pretentious intentions of its artists.
It is important to note that in his denouncement of bebop, Ellison never abandons his attempt to bridge the gap between his prose and jazz. “The Golden Age, Time Past“, and “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz”, the two critical pieces share a prose of the same integrity as “Flamenco”, and “Living With Music” the two dedicated to other subjects. This is demonstrative of Ellison’s genius, showing how he can create a credible argument against an artistic statement, yet still produce worthwhile art himself.
What matters most to Ellison is indefinitely art, he is concerned the glorification of humanity, which is exhibited in what he feels is suitable art. Ellison personally concerns himself with elevating his readers into a higher state of being he himself has encountered by music, by striving toward a music like prose. It is likely that Ellison sees the world as a broken place, and is taking the huge responsibility of repairing it upon himself. Ellison was a writer who wrote to make the extraordinary from the ordinary, the quintessence of a great artist, by taking the common and making it unique. The significance of an author like Ellison is that he skillfully reminds us of how we can aspire toward our own personal climaxes, which is done through embracing our very nature; the function of art is to serve as a medium in which we can grasp this difficult concept of what we are.