Solea

Composed and conducted by Gil Evans; performed by Miles Davis

So, there’s this thing that we all count on where we assume that the intractable problems of today can find solutions tomorrow because part of the problem is the people who are trying to find the solution. They are locked into prejudices and modes of thinking that prevent forward movement. Progress may be a generous term for the spurts and false starts that add up to history, but the long view seems to favor overall gains in many, many fields.

The history of art illustrates this well as movements have come and gone. Generally, new movements rise among up and coming generations. Part of the requirement is that the elders make room. With that stepping aside, even reconciliation between traditional foes becomes more likely.

In recent decades, many advances in the arts have been technology driven. Beside the incredible rise in marketing across all arenas, popular arts have been successfully commidified by corporations (as well as the less popular arts).

As a growing adjunct, we now have available more art than anyone could possibly consume in a lifetime. Over the past century, we have created documents of music, opera, theater, literature, and all the rest. The quality of those documents has improved substantially in the last half century to a degree that much of this “older” art remains in circulation and competition with work being produced today. No matter how much you love any artist working today, their popularity pales in comparison to The Beatles- and I mean their popularity today and not in their heyday.

In 1910,

you might have remembered Eugène Caron fondly, but he was not in direct competition with Erico Caruso, but any new recording of Tosca has to compete with Luciano Pavarotti.

This is all by way of long prelude to saying that Miles Davis hangs over jazz music in a way that boggles the mind. Sketches of Spain, which includes Solea, is one of the great musical recordings of all time. That amounts to the last century, doesn’t it?

But it is only one milestone among many. Other people might point to Kind of Blue or Bitches Brew as absolute favorites. The list does not stop there, but I will.

Essentially, Davis with his fellow musicians carved out this remarkable landscape on recordings which remain widely available. They are wonderful- we continue to hear them.

Maybe there is a group of future innovators growing up somewhere on the planet now. They will develop a new, much loved variation in one of the arts. It will be that much harder as a part of their potential audience to set aside Miles Davis to allow them room. Add to that the deluge of art created by the democratization of art production. I wonder how we recognize the next great thing… because I’m not sure Miles Davis really looked all that promising early on.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 110 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

The Deer Hunter

Film written by Michael Cimino, Deric Washburn, Louis Garfinkle and Quinn K. Redeker; directed by Michael Cimino

After enough years have accumulated, we can look back and recognize moments when shocking experiences dragged us forward on that unstoppable march to adulthood. As a child, if the weather was inclement, I could be found on the floor in front of the television reading the newspaper comics while the national news played in the background. As more and more understanding accrued, I paid more and more attention to Mr. Cronkite.

I missed most, but not all the Vietnam War images. One night, Cronkite warned that they were about to broadcast footage that may upset some viewers. Naturally, I was riveted as they showed an assassination in an airport. I could be muddled about the details though there was the sensation of vulnerability. Not much later, I sat on a floor among adults and watched while Richard Nixon resigned the presidency.

All those events were real. (Granted, The Godfather has an airport assassination, but I don’t think that was it… .) As much as anything, they signal a confrontation with the wider world- the notice by the young individual that things occur beyond their field of vision that may be worthy of notice.

It’s interesting (to me, anyway) to consider that those without access to widespread communication may never have had that same experience. Perhaps this is why so many “first contact” memoirs tend to infantalize the contactees. The perspectives of the two parties are so much in conflict that the only overlap can be found in a common immaturity. On the other hand, children everywhere must go through that process of recognizing experiences that they will never share, but which they must still understand after a fashion. The failure to do so leaves wide the door for prejudice and conflict.

Art can provide

another entry into understanding. One of the jobs of youth is to push themselves to try things that they are not quite prepared for. In our culture, that sometimes seems to be watching movies that ask a bit too much.

My brother and his future wife were my usual marks for pestering about movies that I would not see otherwise. I don’t think they were quite prepared to have me along for The Deer Hunter, but you rolls the dice and you takes your chances. I’m pretty sure that the original movie poster did not portray the Russian Roulette game for which the movie is often remembered.

I also remember the portrayal of young men who lived near me, only a few years older, who went to war. Suddenly, it seemed real. Those were real people on the other end of the gun. The amount of gore and muck seemed overwhelming. Pain happened to a degree that I heretofore had not imagined.

And it changed people. War made you different. Sure, John Wayne had said that war was Hell, but then he charged into a hail of bullets and emerged a hero. I don’t blame Wayne or any of the other artists involved in making films that glorified war- they, too, struggled to find a grammar to express their feelings. Their art told us an answer, but it took Michael Cimino to show us the question.

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 111 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.

Ever Since Darwin

Book written by Stephen Jay Gould

Science used to be popular, but now we have a category in the bookstore called popular science which receives about as much attention as the architecture books. That’s probably not fair. The architecture books wind up on the coffee table and the popular science books land on nightstands waiting for insomnia to strike. I judge unfairly, though the current New York Times #1 science book is Hidden Figures. Comparing it to all other books by a quick flip to Amazon sales ranking and it perches at #1,140. Good thing it became a movie.

I don’t see anything by Stephen Jay Gould becoming a movie, though I would love a series of documentaries. He had a magical ability to identify a topic that could be of wider interest and then present it in such a way that a layman could understand as well as enjoy, down to the illustrations which actually illuminated the subject at hand.

Back before radio, when public lectures were a going concern as entertainment, working scientists performed demonstrations of all sorts- noisy electricity demonstrations and light refraction shows. Nowadays, working scientists pop up as talking heads just like other people caught in a few moments of widespread fame. The forum is different, as is our seeming attention span, and we don’t really hear them discuss their findings or how they arrived at them.

Like every other pundit,

they pontificate as much as they enlighten. Realistically, that may not be too far afield from Victorian science demonstrations, for all I know. The real difference, it seems to me, is the growth of science experts who don’t really do the science, but interpret it for us- journalists as well as those with science training, but little knowledge or appreciation of actual research, collaboration and corroboration.

So, a working scientist who writes primarily from his field of expertise for the thoughtful reader with little background in that field- can it be possible? Can he be a good writer on top of that? That is pure gold.

Gould wrote a regular column for Natural History magazine and many of his books are collections of those articles. They are outstanding examples of the science essay. By the same token, he knew his audience. No reader picked up Natural History looking for the swimsuit section, no matter how intriguing the possibility.

I suppose the best reason to read popular science and history- any good non-fiction- is to think deeply about something. The trick is finding the guide who takes you through the subject with a quick word for the potholes in the road and a nice touch for describing the scenery. The best writers stand out and leave behind knowledge that accrues for a lifetime.

Lastly, a quick afterthought- since I bothered to flip to Amazon. Who the #*!! categorized Ever Since Darwin as Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction?

What’s it all about?

You’ve Got to Check This Out is a blog series about music, words, and all sorts of artistic matters. It started with an explanation. 112 more to go.

New additions to You’ve Got to Check This Out release regularly. Also, free humor, short works, and poetry post irregularly. Receive notifications on Facebook by friending or following Craig.

Images may be subject to copyright.