i'm glad in a sad way that he didn't feel better when he wasn't writing.
it just isn't his style.
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Jazz and Buk
- Thread starter Short Bus
- Start date
i'm glad in a sad way that he didn't feel better when he wasn't writing.
it just isn't his style.
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Buk take a music appreciation class in school? If so that was all classical. I know good classical music can easily calm a crying and aggitated young child. Classical music goes with good drink. Even goes with Eastside beer or Brew 102.
A previous post refers to his listening to what was on the radio. What was playing on AM radio in L.A. in the early years he was writing?
The golden age of jazz was (in my opinion anyway) the years when I was a child, and I never heard any of it until I was an adult. Just Perry Como, Andy Williams that kind of crap.
Buk may have not been motivated to seek out, or had any patience for the crowd at the clubs you would have to have visited to see/hear the stuff.
Can you imagine Mingus and Buk in the same room?
The golden age of jazz was (in my opinion anyway) the years when I was a child, and I never heard any of it until I was an adult. Just Perry Como, Andy Williams that kind of crap.
Buk may have not been motivated to seek out, or had any patience for the crowd at the clubs you would have to have visited to see/hear the stuff.
Can you imagine Mingus and Buk in the same room?
When Bukowski was writing Jazz was all the Trend, it was trendy, posturing time of cool music, that he obviously wanted to distance himself from.
I enjoy lots of Jazz music but I have grown in my love of certian classical composers. I guess it's a cliche these days - But I have time for almost any form of music in some form of other.
I enjoy lots of Jazz music but I have grown in my love of certian classical composers. I guess it's a cliche these days - But I have time for almost any form of music in some form of other.
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
Bukowski was not into "The Trend" he was not "One of the Cool Kids". He is now, but then he was writing. He was writing so we could speculate like this.
Jazz was more of a beat thing. Kerouac had many many jazz colobarations, including David Amram who I actually had the chance to meet twice. Such an amazing person. He's the kind of guy who people really look up to and admire, and when he meets new people, he's just as excited to meet him as people are excited to meet him.
My college actually offers this course called "Kerouac Wrote Here," it involves flying out to San Fran, heading to Denver, NYC, MA (I think that's it, there might be other places). It's a 12 day course, which I am hopefully taking this January. And David Amram actually goes out on the course with us.
I'm taking a Beat Lit class in the fall.
My college actually offers this course called "Kerouac Wrote Here," it involves flying out to San Fran, heading to Denver, NYC, MA (I think that's it, there might be other places). It's a 12 day course, which I am hopefully taking this January. And David Amram actually goes out on the course with us.
I'm taking a Beat Lit class in the fall.
Just my 2cents here but these last few posts seem to be getting closer to the bone.
I think that for Bukowski classical music represented order, complexity, discipline and beauty in a way that jazz did not. He seemed to draw strength from the fact that the old composers (esp the Germans) lived lives of great suffering and yet created music of great beauty. I think that helped him get thru, in his life and in his writing. [Personal note: when I was drinking and awoke really sick, with the End of the World Club meeting in my head, there was nothing better than turning on the clasical radio station...if only to convince myself that life still held order and meaning outside of my own personal chaos. Really got me back on my feet more than once.]
These composers were, in a sense, of mythical proportions given to them by history as well as their achievements. Buk could go to the free library and read about them and their trials while trying to take his mind off hunger and being deadass broke. The real hardcore jazz guys--Diz, Bird, Miles, Trane--these guys were all in the trenches too. They were all getting drunk and dopesick and getting busted and having their cabarét cards yanked. So, while I'm sure Buk could appreciate that, they weren't really able to give him a lift the classical composers did.
Then there's the fact that jazz was the hip cool beat thing, which some of you guys already mentioned. The clubs, the fashion, everyone trying to look cool. That was the anti-Buk. And if I'm not mistaken, there were free concerts by the LA Phil back then, and he could sit out on the lawn for free and soak in the music.
Just some thoughts... you can take em or leave em.
-Charlie
I think that for Bukowski classical music represented order, complexity, discipline and beauty in a way that jazz did not. He seemed to draw strength from the fact that the old composers (esp the Germans) lived lives of great suffering and yet created music of great beauty. I think that helped him get thru, in his life and in his writing. [Personal note: when I was drinking and awoke really sick, with the End of the World Club meeting in my head, there was nothing better than turning on the clasical radio station...if only to convince myself that life still held order and meaning outside of my own personal chaos. Really got me back on my feet more than once.]
These composers were, in a sense, of mythical proportions given to them by history as well as their achievements. Buk could go to the free library and read about them and their trials while trying to take his mind off hunger and being deadass broke. The real hardcore jazz guys--Diz, Bird, Miles, Trane--these guys were all in the trenches too. They were all getting drunk and dopesick and getting busted and having their cabarét cards yanked. So, while I'm sure Buk could appreciate that, they weren't really able to give him a lift the classical composers did.
Then there's the fact that jazz was the hip cool beat thing, which some of you guys already mentioned. The clubs, the fashion, everyone trying to look cool. That was the anti-Buk. And if I'm not mistaken, there were free concerts by the LA Phil back then, and he could sit out on the lawn for free and soak in the music.
Just some thoughts... you can take em or leave em.
-Charlie
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Black Swan
Abord the Yorikke!
Just think of a bad hangover with John Coltrane...
Coltrane composed a lot NOT crazy be-bop squeking squawking sax.
Gerard K H Love
Appreciate your friends
He only mentioned listening to music while drinking and typing. So?
Listen to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven and call that Jazz.
Listen to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven and call that Jazz.