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Disturbing the Universe
(Madison, WI, 1993)
by Arthur Durkee
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The camera records what’s really in front of it, not what we think is in front of it.... We manifest into our lives what we really believe, not what we think we believe.
—DeWitt Jones, photographer and columnist, “Inner Images...,” Outdoor Photographer, November 1993 issue.
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Wisdom always arises in unexpected places.
Someone recently left an article in my mailbox at WORT-FM (where I do a weekly experimental music show). I have no idea who left me the article, or even where it’s from, as it’s a xerox from part of a page of a newspaper (I suspect it might be The Village Voice). The article is called Dysfunctional Harmony, by Kyle Gann. I am grateful to whoever left me this article, because it made me mad, then it made me think, then I realized I agreed with most of what it said. It’s an article meant to provoke; not all of you will agree with it. Here’s the first paragraph:
Jung believed in five instincts: hunger, sex, aggression, flight, and creativity. Everyone deflects, satisfies, or represses these instincts in various ways. Americans (especially Republicans) suppress creativity even more than sex. As a result, we live in a musically dysfunctional society. Concertgoing is a penance. Musicians gripe about rock’s limitations, but the possibility that we could have some more evolved music as collective cultural expression seems so quixotic it’s never entertained. Our official classical scene is a sham in which professors give each other awards for writing tedious music. Composer and audience have mutually acquiesced to a rotten marriage of frigid noncommunication.
Why are we so conservative, especially as creative artists? (As jazz players we may not call ourselves composers, but we are: improvisation is central to the music we play, and improvisation is composition, spontaneous composition in the moment.) In our culture, creative people are generally stigmatized as “different” or something unusual, outside the norm. Gann also writes:
Believing ourselves uncreative, we project creativity onto some safe, distant target. Artists, we reassure ourselves, are different, selected by God, not normal.
It’s this distancing from creativity, from being creative, that is at the root of the problem. Music is supposed to be sensual; art communicates through empathy. You can’t spend your whole life living in your head (instead of your body); that’s not natural, and it means you’re only using about one thirtieth of your potential, of who you really are.
As a society, we distance ourselves from creativity. Creative people are stigmatized as Other: weird, or different, or even crazy. Notice how closely derived the words “demon” and “dæmon” are: dæmon is from the Greek for the creative urge. (Pan was the god of panic.)
Disturb the universe. Disturb yourself. Eat your expectations. Devour your dearest assumptions about what life (the Game) is all about.
The message is the same, folks. But it’s getting more urgent. How can we create a healthy musical environment if we’re not willing to work for it? How do we expect Madison (or anywhere else) to have a healthy jazz scene if we’re not willing to put effort into making happen? Who else will do it? (No one: only those who care enough will be willing to expend the required effort.)
Oh, I know all the excuses; I use them myself. “I haven’t got the time, or the energy, or the money, to help out. Someone else will do it. I’m just one person; there’s nothing I can do all by myself. It’s too big a problem. I don’t work well with groups. It’s hopeless.” Well, if that’s what we believe, that’s what will become true. Only we can make it happen. Do we start now or do we wait until it’s too late?
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