Robert Anton Wilson, a jazz buff, was a fan of the Modern Jazz Quartet and saw the band live in the 1950s, when jazz in the U.S. arguably reached an artistic peak. From left: Percy Heath (double bass), Connie Kay (drums), Milt Jackson (vibes) and John Lewis (piano). (Public domain photo).
Prop Anon on Twitter: "First time #RobertAntonWilson smoked weed was during the intermission of ModeRn Jazz Quarter show back in the Fiddies in NYC
"The Xylophone never sounded so good."
Eric Wagner also discusses this in An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson. In fact, Eric has a separate entry on the Modern Jazz Quartet in the book's Lexicon section. (I keep a Kindle copy of the book on my smartphone so I can refer to it easily. I'll probably do the same thing when Prop's book comes out.)
Does anyone know if RAW saw any of the 1950s incarnations of Miles Davis' band?
Wikipedia has a nice entry on the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Bonus music bit: Nice photo of the MC5 on Twitter, a band mentioned in Illuminatus!
3 comments:
Bob writes about a dream of dancing with Arlen to the music of Thelonious Monk in TSOG. He has some jazz haiku in Coincidance.
Hmm, I love 50s jazz but wouldn’t argue it’s the peak.
Bet RAW responded to the classical strain running thru MJQ. Wish he could have heard Medeski Martin & Wood - try Radiolarians 3 with a bit of THC, it will clean all your chakras for you.
Cosmic Trigger II, p.192 of the Hilaritas edition:
"Eventually my interest in jazz led me to the clubs in Manhattan where Be-Bop was then thriving."
Followed by a bit about RAW not getting to see Charlie Parker, and then:
"I did hear John Lewis and Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk and recognized their genius."
On the next page he mentions being 24 years old at the time, so we can infer that this takes places in the mid-Fifties, arguably even before Miles Davis really broke out with albums such as Miles Ahead or 'Round About Midnight (both from 1957).
Tom, as a side note, it seems that Twitter finally made the last step and for those of us without an account, even just reading a post isn't a possibility any longer. It's now basically get an account or get away.
Post a Comment