File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_2001/nietzsche.0112, message 23


From: "Frederic Ecenrode" <f_ecenrode-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: bebop and Nietzsche
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 10:49:26 -0600


Pardon my in-breaking, I am not on this list serve and thus don't know how 
appropriate this addition is.  I'm studying theology at a mid-western 
university but began reading Nietzsche at the same time as I encountered 
Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, all of which occurred prior to my 
interest in theology.  Try not to let Nietzsche's disgust with theology 
discredit a theology students input.
If the Dionysian in BT is to be considered, remember that it is 
self-abnegating (see pp. 40-1 where "the dithyrambic votary of Dionysus is 
understood only by his peers").  The Dionysian element of BT is communal and 
only those who have denied their [Apollinian] "principium individuationis" 
understand.  But, remember that the Dionysian in Nietzsche changes immensely 
as Nietzsche dissociates himself with Wagner.  Nonetheless, what is most 
misunderstood about Nietzsche, even though he reacts violently against 
culture and its diseased communality, is that Nietzsche desired community 
above all, though a healthy community and not one based on the Cartesian 
ego--why else would he have had such an ambivalent relationship with 
language.  Parker, Monk, Davis, and all the great soloists of the bop era 
are similarly misunderstood.  One cannot speak authentically about black 
music, even the "esoteric" voices of bebop, without speaking about 
community.  Bebop reacts against the same homogenizing tendency of all 
European "community" that caused Armstrong to trumpet so tragically.  The 
difficulty arises because bebop disrupts the bodily experience of jazz and 
we therefore become cerebral listeners and tend towards the immanentism of 
metaphysics.  But, here's the most telling aspect of community in bebop: the 
smaller groups that developed the art also reconstituted the roles (or, 
rather, the interplay) of all the voices in the group.  Consider the 
relationship between just the "supporting" rhythm section players.  Where 
previously they all "chunked" through the same rhythm of the song, now they 
supported at variance the rhythm and with an eye on the melodic/rhythmic 
movements of the soloist.  The notion of group improvisation--begun as it 
was by Basie--takes on a new meaning in bebop.  Thus, what Marsalis says 
about America and jazz wouldn't be that far off, at least as an ideal 
(impossible as it is).  Parker could never have "individuated" the soloist 
without a European listener interpreting him as doing such.  And, likewise 
with all bebop soloists.  Simply listen to a trio and you can hear the 
interdependence of musical elements.
I haven't considered the will to power in relation to bebop yet but the term 
"will" should not be consider in its Kantian implications as a self that 
acts freely.  Nietzsche was radically opposed to such a notion.  The will to 
power seizes its agent, is indeed the agent itself, expels its energy 
without restraint, much like Coltrane's playing "as prayer."
Sorry for my lack of brevity.  I hope this is helpful in some way.
Fred Ecenrode

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