Lipton’s Journal/December 17, 1954/47: Difference between revisions

Spengler is a great writer.{{refn|{{NM}} read the two-volume masterwork ''[[w:The Decline of the West|The Decline of the West]]'' ({{date|1932}}) of [[w:Oswald Spengler|Oswald Spengler]] ({{daterange|1880|1936}}) while overseas in World War II, and admired its sweeping exposition of world history, one that rejected a linear progressive view of social development in favor of a cyclical interpretation of the rise and fall of civilizations.}} His startling similarities are indeed similarities. More modestly I see the connection now between such things as jazz, bull-fighting and six-day bike races. Jazz is easy to understand once one has the key, but no one ever offers the key, and it is so simple. Instead of trying to understand the “beauty” of jazz, one should understand it as something which is constantly triumphing and failing. Particularly in modern jazz one notices how Brubeck and Desmond{{refn|[[w:Dave Brubeck|Dave Brubeck]] ({{daterange|1920|2012}}), a composer and pianist, and [[w:Paul Desmond|Paul Desmond]] ({{daterange|1924|1977}}), a composer and saxophonist, were key figures in the West Coast cool jazz movement of the 1950s, playing together as members of the Dave Brubeck Quartet from {{daterange|1951|1968}}.}} off entirely on their own with nothing but their nervous systems to sustain them wander through jungles of invention with society continually ambushing them. So the excitement comes not from victory which is the pleasure of swing (more [[Lipton’s Journal/December 17, 1954/48|later]]) but from the effort merely to keep musically alive.