Philip Larkin
3,158 words
The writer Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was born on August 9, 1922, and this essay is part of a commemoration of his centenary. — Ed.
Reading the jazz criticism of the poet Philip Larkin today, the most noticeable feature is how much of the music he did not like. His antipathy towards certain major artists now seems almost incomprehensible. (more…)
1,222 words
Steely Dan is a band composed of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Their biggest hits have a kind of eternal life, anthems that grace barbecues, bars, and band jams for their simultaneously irreverent, yet wholesome outlook on American culture. This is perhaps best expressed in the group’s own name (more…)
1,920 words
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a famed French actress, singer, pop culture icon, and accidental provocateur. Bardot’s marks on pop culture include her popularization of the bikini, the eponymous Bardot neckline, and her collection of absurdly fun and often intriguing slices of French pop music that feel both timeless in their replay value yet (more…)
9,401 words
Stanley Crouch
Kansas City Lightning: The Rise & Times of Charlie Parker
HarperCollins, 2013
“The double consciousness so fundamental to jazz: the burdens of the soul met by the optimism of the groove.” — Stanley Crouch (more…)
1,224 words
One of the first albums to be recorded on 16-track tape, Hot Rats spawned a jazz standard, a sprawling meditation on prostitution, and some of Captain Beefheart’s best vocal work outside of Trout Mask Replica. It’s mostly instrumental, but does not lack any substance, and the sounds it contains are both timeless and reflective of the late 1960s. (more…)
6,581 words
When defenders of multiracialism, most often referred to euphemistically as multiculturalism, bring up the benefits of diversity, one of the things that tops the list is music. And within that category, jazz is most often mentioned because it is unquestionably an art form that would not have developed without the mingling of races in America. It cannot be contested by any objective historian that white, black, and Jewish musicians (and, to a far lesser extent, musicians of other races) made important contributions to the music. (more…)
3,302 words
Alain Daniélou
Sacred Music: Its Origins, Powers, and Future — Traditional Music in Today’s World
Ed. Jean-Louis Gabin
Varanasi, India: Indica Books, 2002
“People who lose their language and their music cease to exist as a cultural and national entity and have no further contribution to make to world culture.” — Alain Daniélou (more…)
3,171 words
Translated by G. A. Malvicini
Not long ago, the newspapers announced that according to some calculations, by 1970 half of the population of Manhattan will be black, and that in the five boroughs that make up the entire city of New York, 28 percent of the inhabitants will be of colored race. Developments in the same direction have been registered in other cities and areas of the United States. We are witnessing a negrification, a mongrelization, and a decline of the white race in the face of faster-breeding inferior races. (more…)
4,687 words
Paul Trynka
Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones
New York: Viking, 2014
“He was really trying to pass the buck, as was his wont. I wasn’t interested. ‘No. get in there, mate, this is your baby.’” — Christopher Gibbs, quoted in Paul Trynka, Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones
4,766 words
Jack Kerouac
Translated by Bruno Cariou
Part 1 of 2
Editor’s Note:
The following essay, written in 1968, and published in Evola’s volume L’Arco e la Clava (The Bow and the Club, 1968), falls naturally into two parts. The first is Evola’s sympathetic critique of the youth rebellion of the 1950s and the 1960s, with a focus on the Beatniks.
