File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9801, message 395


From: Russell Pearson <r.pearson-AT-art.derby.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 16:51:30 +0100
Subject: Re: M-TH: White Jazz



>I've heard of this but I've never heard any of it.  I think there's at least
>one acid jazz club in DC, but I ever goto clubs of any kind, so I'm out of
>the loop. So is any of this stuff any good?

I like it! Problem I've got is that my albums are out of date and the stuff
I hear is either on cassettes which invariably aren't named or at
clubs/raves. If you ask someone at these venues what the music is they just
tend to smile at you and say how wonderful the air-conditioning/trees are
that night.

>Re this last one: is this the same as "Intelligent Drums and Bass"?  A
>visiting Brit played me some of this stuff and it was interesting.  I heard
>a few really good pieces but I can't remember whether they were in this or
>one of the other genres, and I can't remember what they were.

I expect its the same- there's so many derivative names cropping up it's
difficult to keep up with them.
>
>>Anyway Louis, enough of this banter, it's about time we swapped insults: as
>>Dizzie Gillespie says "Jazz is too good for Americans!"
>
>But is it also too good for Brits?
All apart from 'Trad Jazz'!


>
>One thing I'm truly convinced of, esp. when dealing with intellectuals of
>the left: New York is too good for New Yorkers.  You can't get a decent meal
>in DC to save your life.  It's a useless pile of shit on the Potomac,
>totally undistinguished except for the museums.  But New York is a delight
>if you're not paying rent.  Only problem is, intellectuals there think
>they're in the know and they don't really know shit about squat.

As a country bumkin I can only dream of the cornucopia of US city life. The
delight here in rural Derbyshire is pub meals with ridiculously large log
fires and full meals for 5 pounds.
Back to the jazz/rave scene. This is a very interesting development. For
one the music is very innovative and often put together using relatively
cheap but high tech equipment. The ethos is punk, but the output is more
hedonist hippy. In this neck of the woods regular outdoor raves are put on
by people who have become known as 'crusties' or 'travellers'. These new
age hippies live for the most part (especially in the summer though some
all year), in old buses, firetrucks ambulances etc. Their life is made
difficult by the police and they seem to survive by organising regular out
door 'free parties'. Interested party-goers ring a special number to be
given directions out to the middle of no-where. If they are lucky theu get
there before the police and the over-streched rural piggies can do nowt
about it. I was stopped once on the way to such an event. Pretending
ignorance I was followed for some fifteen miles by the local plod. On
giving up, stopping, and admitting I was lost at which point said plod
spotted that I had a piece of paper with directions on it. He grabbed it
and then directed us right to the party saying that all they wanted to know
was precisely where it was being held!
As to the travellers, they have almost completely opted out of mainstream
life to pursue a romantic dream of music, parties and drugs, together with
a good smattering of mysticism. From my perspective they are an affable
lost, largely unpolitical in any real sense, though they'd probably
disagree by arguing that their opting out was more of a political action
than the theorising taking place here. For a run down on the Sheffield
party people, interested surfers may wish to check out
http://www.drugnet.co.uk/

The question that intrigues me is that as Marxists,are the actions of these
people to be supported, ignored or decried?




Russ







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