RacpeH ELLISON LIVING WITH MUSIC RacpH Exttson’s Jazz WRITINGS Edited by Robert G. O’Meally TES. A201 FLL THE MODERN LIBRARY NEW YORE4 Living ith Music ddance movements with religious passion. In Sweet Lite Fus Boy the song “The Holy Babe” is » Negro version of an old English count-rhyme, and while enumerating the gifts of the Christian God to men, Mahalia and Mildeed Falls, he Pianist, create a rhythmical drive such as is expected of the entire Basie band. Icisal joy and exultation and swing, but iis nonetheless religious music. Many sho are moved by Mahalia and her spirit have been so impressed by the enn tional release of her music thar they fail e see the frame: ‘within which she moves. Buc even Jn te Upper Room and Ma ‘alia Factrm—in. which she reminds us most poignantly o/ Bessie Smith, and in which the common singing techniques of the sprituals and the blues are most clearly tobe heard are directed toward the afterlife and thus are intensely reli- gious For those who cannot, or will nr, vsic Mahalia in her proper setting these records are the next best thing. FLAMENCO “Hamenca.” Bisons fort publisbed music exay, cokes his debs ro Emcc lemingeay te sacat-on-wine bt detail tering of in dependent clases the deadpan sor thai wees allof pasion (ike Hemingay, Elison neste occasion ofthe ournalistic pies this care arses of nee weordings of flamenco was 1 make bis vom statment abent ifeand art. Herte coc for spiritual valuct ‘aithin the contest of secular art and the conviction tht art's sr devices significa fom its conection wi ritual deine Eons prvpestive ae mae orter bere aud throughout bie care. Not iparticalarly his sone of flamence as am attacioly bid mace of ‘Spain, “och i meithr Europe wor Ae,” he wis “ra oud of beh" flamencaa fora tha rlgmes zit eter world macs partic larly the Maer. Noe, ty, Elion emphasis on the inextingicbale poser ofthe atir-z-ber. in an interview comenporanects with this piece, Elliom seid of the Spanish dencer|muccian Verte Exeadere (terated ere) that be “ould ecpitalte the bistory and prio he Spamivh dance iba single arabesque of is fingers” Ia lan intonsy charged sce in Invisible Man, Eliz presen an old Neg sensu oho sings spiritual as fl of ~chscbmers as lamonca” First published ax “niredueton to Flames,” this pce ‘var write forthe Socurday Review, Dexomber 11,1954 ee i6 + Living with Music Recently in Parsin Leroy Haynes's restaurant in the Rue de Martyrs, where American Negro fiers and jazz musicians bend over their barbecue and red beans and rice in an at tude as pious a thacof any worshiper in Sacre Coeus, which dominates Montmartre above, a gypsy woman entered and fold my fortane She was a handsome woman, deemed in the ‘mysterious, many-skirted costume of the gypsies, and the said thae Iwas soon to take a journey, and that I as to nd ‘00d fortune said jokingly thac I had had good fortune, for afer dreaming of efor many years Ihad been w Mads “ou went when you should have gone,” she sid, peering st my hand. *Hlad you gone earlier you might have found! death. But chat is of the past. speak of good forcune ine future” “There I heard rea flamenco,” I sid “and that is» yoo! fortune I shall never forgen” “Flamenco,” she said. "You understand flamenco? ‘Then you must go sce Escudero. You must hear Pepe el dl Matrona and Rafael Romero.” “Te heard of Eseudero,” 1 said, “but who are these others?” “You will se," she said. “You will sec and heat aso” “This is real good forrone,” Usa. *T choughe Escudewo wes dead.” “Not dead,” she sad, holding my hand over a damp spo ‘on the tableclocs, “only old, Bus to sce bim isa lie more than (o cake a walk. The fortune of your hand comes after a journey over wate She then offered, for a further consideration, eo cell me other things, but this was enough. | was amused (for sure ‘coough we were fying home cwo days hence), my wife and friends were laughing that I had submitted ¢o having my palm read, and the knowledge that the legendary Vicente Escudero was dancing again after so many years of retire. ‘mene was enough good fortune for any one day. Hlamenes «9 So that evening wesw th old masterin the al glory of his returection Dry, now, and bide in his grace dro sno lange explo foor-esounding ir bt com es oven the samping fay of the Spanish dance withthe gente, non delice, pets, and potent of gesures and Inovementreuserting in terms of his ovn medio uth hich Schumana-Heink, Roland Haye, and Pova Fish have demonstrated in ers cf the ac of Song tha with the ageat performer ics his ile, eo torwously achieved, 0 Careflly clas, which the lst ogo down Belore a Ando withthe unger Pepe cl del Moony haere fourisable wo dominate the space of even the large theater sh his mos pias arabesqoes of so But more importa here than she nspiing tiumph of anise ve ne was the tumph, inthis os soph Sewtedof Weer cies of Cnt flamenco eich has retained is iter and vilycvough evo cena daring which the Wecascmed that tha theough ealight tenment scenes and progres, dispensed wth those tapi tmetphyscl elements of human life which the at of meaco celebrates Ceraialy Exadero and Matona dro’ a stent del of thei icy rom thi tation that conan fay clement which the West as dismissed a “prime, that epithe so facile or demolishing all things ular ‘hich Weserners do noe uderstndotwishto contemplate Berhaps Spain (which neither Europe nr Aiea but 4 blend of beh) ms once more challenging to our Westra pimis, If o,f was no with pesimism but with an ihe mative at, which dws i srength and endurance fom a ‘linger deal nth the whole man (Cnanuto’ man of Asha bod who must die) in world which svcwed as Sasically impersonal and violent if, through hee sn tnd dancers and her famenco music she was making the Wea mont seo and neded gift Thave yer dscorered the specif marr of the gift of forane which my gypay pried ct wl someTT Te ae a a 98 + Living with Music beter appears Il accepe Westminscer’s new three-volume Amtévoey of Cante Famence, which bas just won the Grand Prix de Disque, asthe answer Escudero isnt init, but mem- bers of his entourage are: Pepe el del Matrons, Refacl Romero, and the great flamenco guitarist Pesico el del Lune, ho along with eight other artists present tisty-three ex cellealy recorded examples of flamenco song style ‘Cante Flamenco isthe very ancient folk music ofthe An~ datusian gypsies of southern Spain, Is origins are ax myste- tious as chose of the gypsies themselves, but init are heard Byzantine, Arabic, Hebraic, and Moorish elements fused and given the violent, rhythmical expresiveness of the uy >= sies. Cance Flamenco, or contr bends (deep song, asthe paren, less ford form is ealied), is a unique blending of Eastern and Western modes and as such i often bafties when it mont incrigues the Wester ear. In cur own culture the closest ‘music co icin feeling isthe Negro blues, early jaze, and the slave songs (now euphemistically termed “spirituals") Even ‘casual acqusintance wich Westminster's anthology reveals certain parallel, and jazz fans will receive here a pleasent shock of recognition. Soon to be released free to those who Purchase the Ansley a forty-pago booklet containing the texcof the songs and « historical survey of flamenco litera ture written by Professor Tomas Andrade de Silva of the Royal Conservatory ac Madrid, Negro folk masic, Cante Flamenco (which recog- nizes no complete separation bewween dance and song, the basic mood, the guitar and castanets, hold all togethers is a communal are In the small rooms in which ies performed there are no “squares” siting around jusc to be entertained, everyone participates very much as duting a noneommer~ cial jam session or a Southern jaze dance. Ie can be just a8 roy and sweaty and drunken as a Birmingham “break. down’; while one singer rif" (improvises) or the dancers “010 town" the others assist by clapping their hands in the intricate pereussive manner called pelinads and by stamping Fanence - 99 out the chythms with their feet. When a singer, guitarist, or doncer has negotiated 2 particularly subtle passage (and this ‘san arcof great refinements) the shouts of jOl# arise to ex Press appreciation of his art, co agree with the sentiments expressed, and to encourage him on to even greater elo. quence. Very often the datbolezy side containing the center ‘em tile dance songs) sounds like a revivalist congregation saying “Amen” to the preacher Flamenco, while traditional in theme and choreography, allows a maximum of individual expression, and « demoeri, tic rivalry such as is typical of «jam session, for, like the blues and jazz, ici an art of improvisation, and like them it can be quite graphic. Even one who doesnt understand the lyrics will note the uncanny ability ofthe singers presented hhere to produce pictorial effets with their voices. Great space; echoes, rolling slopes, the charging of bulls, and the prancing and galloping of horses ow inthis sound much as animal cries, tain whistles, and the loneliness of ight sound through the blues. ‘The nasal, harsh, anguished tones heard on these sides ate not the results of inepticude ot “primitivism’, lke the “dirty tone” of the jazz instramentalis, they are the result of an esthetic which rejects the beautiful sound soughe by clas- sical Western mosie Not that flamenco is simply a music of lespait; this is true mainly of the seguidilas the tears and the sara | rows of song) which are sung when the hoy images are pa raded during Holy Week, and which Rafael Romero sings with a pitch of religious fervor tha reminds one ofthe geet Pastora Pavon (La Nis de les Peer), Bur along with these darker songs the dncblogy offers all the contrasts, the gay slegrias balers cevilanas, the passionate petmierag lallabice (ama), prison songs, mountain songs, and laments. Love, loneliness, disappointment, pride—all these are themes for Cante Flamenco. Perhaps whee attracts us most to famenco, 18 it does the blues, isthe note of unillusioned afirmation‘of humanity which it embodies. The gypsies, like the slaves, are an outcast though undefeared people who have never Tost their awareness of che physical svurce of man’s most spiritual moments, even their Christ s-4 man of flesh and hone who suffered and bled before his apotheosis. In its more worldly phases the flamenco voice resembles the blues voice, which mocks the despair stated explicitly in ehe lyric and it expresses the great human joke directed agains the tunivers, that joke which is the secret ofall folklore and smych: tha though we be dismembered daily we shall always rise up agsin. Americens have long found in Spanish cule ‘clarifying perspective on theit own, Now in this anthology (of Spanish folklore we have a most inviting challenge to lis ten more ettentively tothe deeper voice of our own, RicHarp Wricut's Bu: ‘This early esx riten abst the time Elion was sterting Invisible Man, oférs am importontasrertin of the compass of Richard Wright’ eltura inbeiances, including his international rari reading and bis de 0 the lca language and pesee~ toes of the nes Tis alo seminal state of Elson pte (phy of the vasio—deived in terme of exseiaha endurance (a wll as tragic eisdont—ard about bs the aes cs inf nce the farms and strategies of rites and eer artis “abo fare wot musicians. At the tie ofthis essay publication, Elson (end is trary menu Wright were tory se frends a their ‘ermeponience (rach of it available in te library at Yale Unix sin) tents For filer picnre of Ellison's complica, hanging views of Wright. rex evo Bison’ “Richard Wright and Reerat Negro Fiction" (Dicection, Summer 1941) az wcll ax "The Warld and the Jag" and “Remenbering Richard Wrige” (ooh in The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison) “Ridard Wrights Bes” fire appeared in The Ancioch Review in the sure of 1948. IF anybody ask you who sing this song,