| Better than this one ever was!
www.koolkatsez.blogspot.com
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| Well, it's been a while, but I'm supposed to be writing a paper about Latin jazz right now, and all I got down was "Latin jazz" before I wandered off into unproductivity again. This is what resulted (it's not very good):
Latin jazz has existed in some form or another since the dawn of time. I sat down with Bill Moyers and asked him why.
Me: Bill, you seem to have this theory that all men are united by a single "god-head," or a sort of universal ice-cream man, if you will.
Bill: Well I think you more or less have it right on the money. It's an interesting choice of metaphor because I've always thought of life as containing multiple "flavors," or what some would call "the elements." These flavors, as it were, just kind of sit there, not doing much, unless that is we decide to jump on things and take the initiative.
Me: Many of your critics would say that you can't really prove this.
Bill: Well, certainly if you're talking about tangible, weight-in-your-palms evidence, certainly I can't. But there are other kinds of proof you know.
Me: Such as?
Bill: Well, take arthritis for instance. I know an elderly woman named Eunice who shrieks in agony two days before a rain storm. Is that what you would call "objective"? Of course not. But it is good for a laugh from a certain elemental, or flavorful, standpoint.
Me: I'd like to spend some time on the clave. Has it run its course?
Bill: I wouldn't go so far as to say it's run its course. It is in remission at the moment. But these things tend to come in waves. One flavor arises, another subsides, and why should the defining rhythm of Caribbean music be any exception? Logic says it shouldn't, of course.
Me: Will we be seeing a resurgence in our lifetime?
Bill: Within ten years.
Me: What do you say to those who argue that ethnographic observation inherently changes the thing observed?
Bill: In any situation of attempted knowledge-culling, we can only get so close to the truth. The sooner we accept that, the sooner we can begin to build more complex theories from the data we do have. There's no sense spending all of our time on the building blocks if they're inevitably off by so many micrograms anyway.
Me: Thanks, Bill, you've been great.
Bill: My pleasure.
Me: Where is Latin jazz today?
Bill: It's an international music, enjoyed internationally. I think we find it wherever we see certain collections of Latin jazz instruments coalescing in the hands of musicians trained in and willing to play the music. It correlates positively with Latin jazz performers and audiences.
Me: How will we deal with the transition from dance-hall to opera-house?
Bill: I don't see the need for any such transition. In fact, by removing the music from its original space of production, we endanger the very aesthetic that makes it desirable in the first place. And this is really the most acrid flavor of all: You can never crack the god-head in a way that negates the very possibility of cracking.
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