Jesus, Todd... I forgot you're around. I don't have the
energy to go toe to toe with your "authority."
Nevertheless, I would submit that Robert Johnson's delta
blues is essentially rural, whereas Noir is urban... as is
bebop.
Top that!
dave
Todd Mason wrote:
>
> Yes, dave...actually, much of the Ellington ouervre
as well as not a little
> of Shaw would be noir just fine, one need not try to
claim that Bop was the
> quintessential noir music. JOHNNY STACCATO
notwithstanding. And there goes
> the mythologization of those who foreshortened their
lives, which also
> manages to forget that heroin wasn't invented by the
boppers, either.
>
> "Hell Hound on My Trail" by Robert Johnson is as
noir as one could
> want...but then, what isn't noir about blues? Or
bluegrass? At least in
> their, ahem, noirish moods. TM
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dave [mailto:
birdlives@earthlink.net]
>
> I seem to remember a similar thread a few years
ago...
>
> I've followed the latest attempts to define Noir
with much
> interest. Everybody seems to make good points. And
although
> I believe there's a noirish worldview that
transcends
> period, the "purest" examples of Noir to me exist
roughly
> between 1943-1950.
>
> Utilizing that criteria, Bebop would be the
authentic music
> of Noir. Not to mention, Bird, Bud Powell's, Fats
Navarro,
> Sonny Stitt, etc's essentially "noir" lives. The
frantic,
> jagged, and unsettling melodies and tempos of these
cats'
> bebop "heads" captures in an abstract way much of
the noir
> malaise. Bird's famed "Koko" is a helluvalot more
"Noir"
> than recent nostalgic exercises in mood, such as
Charlie
> Haden's recent noir tributes.
>
> If the basic Noir themes can be summed up by
Woolrich's
> "First you dream, then you die," or Ellroy's "There
is no
> hope -- only obsession..." The music and lives of
this first
> wave of beboppers epitomize the Noir
credos...
>
> Having said that, there is an Artie Shaw tune from
the
> thirties called "Nightmare" that has a very noirish
flavor...
>
> loving noir and jazz --
> --
> # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say
"unsubscribe rara-avis" to
> # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the
digest version.
> # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
.
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 20 Feb 2003 EST