Jazz And Rock: The New Meetings

by Scott Mason

iliizI-i'uik is an iiiisalislactorv
erm, existing like so many other
iyiiriii labels, tor the convenience
Jl i evieirers. critics, and other dc-
iizcns otaesiiietir pidgment There
|Sll01lQVBlUDIlI§ lliitslt‘nl lol‘lllEXISr
ing today tiial has iioi been me
liiencod by other reas of music
eonnrd Horusteui uses elements

and link in tiis Mass, Doll

teams up wiiii a composer

ruuic uuisii, Commander
odv re-uitcrpieis eouiitrve
iestern. and on union, The labels
are iueaniiiglc yel tiiey persist

and as such present a convenient
starting point lei-tins pi-oiecteiiser-
ies on tiie new meetings or jazz
and rock.

When most people think oi "lazy
rock" the name Blood, Sweat, and
Tears splings to their lips, To my
mind. however. ttiis group at best
represents a ioek translation oi the
Big Band tradition oi Swing Era
iazz in tact, in bitter moments i
will say that Blood.chul,unllTears
combines tiie worst or each iorm,
mediocre improvisation and 1950's
tiorn arrangements irom jazz, and
maudliu, energy drained rock and

— The Iconoclast

roll riiis, Blood, Sweat, and Tears
are syutiiesizers and interpreters
at a time when botli lazz and rock
desperately need creators For real
development in the terms. we must
look elsewhere

Tlle true meeiiiigs oi creative jazz
and rock are, i think, best deiined
iii an electronic context. it is in
the concept oi electric instruments
and eliects that rock has had its
greatest cheat on iazz, which has
been primarily oriented to acoustic
instruments. In turn, iazz has given
harmonic inatnrity amt more coma
plex improvisation to rock in terms

oi rhythm, however, there are basic
differences still to he resell/ede-
can anyone really swing and rock
at the same time? in any event,
the next four articles will deal with
liandsﬁsoft Machine and The Ma-
havlshnu Orchestra from rock, Wea-
ther Report and Herbie Hancock
irom Jazz~that are attempting a
fusion of the forms, and will attempt
to deal with some of the problems
these groups are facing with their
music.

The bands were not selected are
bitrarily They are all electric
bands, and have albums readily

available in the United States. I feel,
too, that tiiey may be licadedinthe
same direction; that they are in
stages of ilvelopment that may ule
tiinately converge into a viable new
term of music. A filth article will
attempt the fearsome task of draWr
ing conclusions and formulating a
kind of synthesis from these (115*
Ciissions

On KDIC this Monday night from
7—SPM will be featured albums
lly Miles Davis, who must in some
ways he considered an originator in
this field with his albums in A Si-
lent Way and Bitches Brew. The
leading members oi Weather Re»
port and the Herbie Hancock selir
let all originally played with Miles
and have certainly retained much oi
the man’s iniluence and concept in
their own explorations.

This series or articles and broad-
casts has the hopeful purpose oi
opening people’s ears to some new
sounds These albums all provide
a listenable springboard into jazz
tor a primarily rock oriented audr
ience, and may by themselves in
dicate a new direction in music for
the future

JALW than

who starlet anh 35inch September 22, I972

Er; ;

l

~phoioiw Gait oiintsi

Grinnell students converse with iollowers
oi h. c. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
iounder oi the Aeharya oi the international
Society inr Krsna Consciousness, who pas-

JUST VISITING

sed through Grinnell this week on their
wily to Los Angeles.

Many students had a

chance to talk with them throughout the
day and to discuss ideas pertaining to their
religious sect, and several purchasednooks
relating to the religion.

Seniors: Hopes And tours

by Jim Alt

Everything appears to be cool. The
tour oi us, all seniors, are sitting
in the Forum, happily bullshitting

and avoiding the library. No one has
paper due this week, and we are
all enjoying one or those occasional
letups in Grlnuell's renowned aca—
demic pressure. The scene is most
pleasant and relaxed.

Unbeknownst to us, a Junior is ap-
proaching who will ruin the whole

Part Two Values: Their ’Noture And Necessity

by Gregg Daffner

The goals a plant pursues are in-
nate, automatic, and determined by
its nature. which is to sayr-a plant
has no choice oi action The values
it seeks by its very nature are
nourishment. water, and sunlight
The standard oi value which directs
its actions is its liie While there
are alternatives in the conditions
it encounters (Iii its piiysical enr
Viriiiiment) tiieie is no alternative
in a plant’s tunct' iI-vit acts ailtnr
maticailv to Iiiither its lite and is
unable to act ioi its own ilestruce
tion

Lower conscious species possess
only the laciiltv cl sensation (which
is enough to guide their actions amt
luliill their needs; "A sensation is
produced by the automatic reaction
oia sense organ lo 1\ stimulus irom
the outside world. it lasts loi the
duration oi the immediate moment.
as long as the stimulus lasts and
no longer " Sensations hie an Lliltnr
matic response. an niiimnatic loiin
or knowledge-mid as such, the anie
inal can neitiiei seek nor evade ii
For a loner animal it is its liie
which is its standard ofvalueilil‘ectr
ingitsactioiis iii ‘ automatically
to luitiicr iis liiet thin the range
oi action possible to it, and is in-
capable oi .ii-ting iiii- its own itc-
striiclioii

lligiici iiigamsnis possess the lac-
iilty oi retaining sensations-due
iiculiy oi perception ii perception
is ii gioup oi sensations anto~
iiinticaili retained and inlegintedby
the hinm u|_ liringo uisinu-tiicii
gives it the ability in be .iii-aie, not
oi single stimuli, llill oi entities.
oi things . {is .iiilnns are diiecteii
by the iniegiiitcii .iwaieness oi the
perceptual realiiv roiiliiniiing it it
can giisp peiiepiiial ioniiotcs and
tin ftl .iiiiiiiiiatu [ll-It’l'iltltill .IssOi‘iair
tious but it has no choice in this
kiiouleiign ,iuii tin-so skills nn .tIllr
inal also lids liU cliiiii-e in the stair
dard iii vilne iiiiii-iuie its .iriions
its bollws minute it with an :lilior
niatic code at \utllllis .uui an .iuioe
inniir knowledge pi “llitl is gopiiniid
evil toi it iii» chat iii-neiiis iii
eiidntigeis its liiei. in animal can
lit-Itlll‘l' choose in exttlilil its know-

ledge or evade it.

But man has no automatic code or
knowledge for survival. He has no
automatic course of action or set
of values His own consciousness
must discover theserrbut Since his
consciousness Will not function auto-
matically, it is only man who is
born without any guarantee oi
remaining conscious at all What
makes man distinct from all other
living species is that his conscious—
ness is volitional.

While the| automatic values and
functions of a plant are Sufficient
for its own survival but not for an
animals, so toO are the automatic
values provided by tiie sensory-pen
ceptunl mechanism of animal sulflr
cient for its own Survival lull inl
iorman's Man requires the guid—
:tlice of conceptual values which are
derived irom conceptual knowledge.
Reason is the taciilty. Thinking is
the process.

"Reason is the iaculty that per»
ceives, iiientiiies, aiui integrates the
material provided by man's sen-
ses" But it is an activity which
must he done by man's own choice
He is tree at any time to tiiink or
to evade the eiiori Thin ing re
quires a state oiiull. focusedztwnree
ness, and it is that act oiiocusmg
one's consciousness that is volitiollr
at Metaphysically, the choice *to
be conscious (focus), or not is the
choice oi lite or death"

For tiiose organisms possessing it
"consciousness is their basic
means oi surVival. For mnii, reason
is that basic means. A hunger scu»
saiiou will tell him that he needs
load (that is, it iie identities it as
"hunger”l but it will not tell him
how to obtain his looii--uoi which
kind is good ior him and which is
bad In tact. without a process oi
thought he can i even provideior his
simplest physical Iieet . let alone
more complex things( all e a wheel,
a iir a house. a vsicui oi irrr
cation. etc) Vet this is the very
knowledge he depends on in ortlei
to live nd only a volitional act oi
his (OI ciousness. .i piocoss oi
thought, can piovide it
since mall's process oi thought is

not automatic or involutary, he must
Ilear responsibility for the results
of this thinking He must discover
huw to tell what is true or false, how
to correct his errors, validate his
concepts, conclusions, and know—
ledge, discover the laws oi logic
and oi thought, because he has no
guarantee or the eiticacy at his in-
tellectual efforts.

Man is born tabula {353" a blank
tabletr-wlllch means he has no in»
nate knowledge, Thereiore, he can
have no automatic course of action
and no automatic values. Since a
being who does not know automati»
cally what is true or ialse cannot
automatically know What is right or
\vrongrrguod or evil—-and since he
needs this very knowledge in order
to livenlle must discoverit. Every-
thing he needs or desires has to be
learned, discovered, and produced
by man, by his own choice, eiiort,
and mintl

Man is not exempt irom the laws
hi i-eality—-ivhich means he is a
specilic organism of a speciiic nae
lure that requires specliic action
to sustain his life What his sur-
vival requires is set by nature, and
is iiol open to his choice. What is
open to his choice is only Whether
he will discover reality and choose
the light goals and values or not.
Mall is free to make the wrong
rlmlcenbltt he is not free to sue-
ceed with it.

lvlan is tree to evade reality and
to unlocus his mintl but he is not
tree to avoid the destruction he re-
luses to see Since knowledge is
the means at survival ior any can
scious organism and since iorevery
living consciousness the penalty oi
unconsciousness isdestiuction, man
and man alone oi all living species
has ltie power to act as his own
tlcslt'ttverrraltil has tlIiDugllout his
cxistcllcc

What then, you Ask, are the right
goals loi‘ liltiit, the values Ills Sure
vlvztl inquires? That is the question
illfit ctlllcs ileuls with And this, gen»
tle readers, is why inanneeiisa code
of ethics,

Next Monk 1 it ill Cxplllill and define
the [mills illltl values [but man res
quires

day, He gets some cotiee, peers
around, and spots us. He Saunters
over and joins us, and casually asks,
“Well, what are you all going to
do next year?”

One at us goes into a coughing fit.
Another knocks his Coffee over onto
me. 1 develop a severe iacial twitch,
The fourth suddenly has to leave
the room.

The psych major at the next table
starts taking notes luriously, writ-
ing things like "classic anxiety re-
action" and “signs oi acute inser

curity”. He is obviously not-a sen» __

ior, or he would know.

What he would know is this: No
senior can answer that unsettling
question and most, in tact, would
rather not think about it The
tion brings into sharp locus the fact
that our Experience here is a tem-
porary phenomenon, about to end.

To a senior who has spent a good
part of his first three years here
learning how to deal with the EXr
perience, that is a disturbing
thought. One acquaintance insists
that, “The main thing I’ve learned
at Grinnell is how to survive at
Grinnell,"

He has a point, Grinnellians thrive
on their academic, emotional, and
social hassles. we endlessly dissect
prois, other students, and events
here, trying to discover whatmakes
ourselves and this place tick. We
are both participants in and
observers of the collective life of a
tiny, selfrcontalned, introspective
academic community Eachmember
0f the Community is forced to come
to terms with his surroundings, to
iorm some vaguely coherent world
View of this strange little world
At the same time, the individual
Grinnellian inevitably maturesrror
at least changeseeirom age 17 or 18
to age 21; he would anywhere, but
at Grinnell he finds himself Very
conscious oi therprocess, He is.
again, both participant in and one
server ot his own growth. This
dualism complicates the process
considerably, adds to the Gl‘innel-
lian's sense Of confusion and Dro-
vides his character wilha vltalselfr
analytic dimension.

The Same dualism contributes to
swings in what, ior lack oi more
precise description, I think oi as
“campus mood”. When the student
body here is down, it plllnlbs its
way clear to rock bottom, we reins
force each otller's depressions as
we analyze them ‘ ”Academic pres—
sure" last year was Just a conven-
ienl peg ior our late wmter dee
presslon; but as we talked about
it, reinforcing each other with horr
rendous tales of term papers and
tests, the phrase took on a liie or
its own. We could all identify with
the label, whether it actually iipr
plied individually or not.

The senior, after observing and
being part oi a number oi such cola
lective mnnic»depressive cycles,

develops a measure oibalanee, He
recognizes a depression as being a
tan-1y common state oi aiiairs, and
he may even savor one. And he
knows how to deal with an upswing
of campus mood or of his own mood,
riding the crest of good ieeling and
good times while doing enough work
to prevent ilunking out.

But the senior is no longer tree
to immerse himself totally in Grins
nell. The autumn return to campus
is always a good time, a time of
parties and oi renewing friendships;
but iieri the senior, it is time to .
start writing letters and iilling out
applications and, most oi all, wor-
rying. It is a lime ior realizing that
the Experience is neither permanent
nor atlrencompassing, even though
it is a full time job at the moment.

The Senior’sreactiontothisdilemr
ma, then, leadsto sceneslikethe one
i described. He simply and unconr
sciously pretendsthatnexlyeardoes
not exist, although intellectually he
knows that hemustprepareforit. He
packs all the mechanics of applying
for grad schools or Jobs into a
remote corner of his mind and con-
tlnues his Grinnell existence as be-
fore, Although he would rather not
think about itrrlndeed, he probably
does not have the time to--one pore
tion oihis mind neverstopsworking
on the question, “Whatareyougoing
to do next year?"

And, because he usually knows that
he cannot answer that question at
least until next spring, the senior
leads a Strange two-level life. On
the first level he is a Grinnellian,
perhaps more conscious of his unlr
que surroundings because oi the
knowledge that this is his last chance
to define and understand the Experr
ience. On the second level he is
tar away, prolecting himseli into an
infinite number of possible futures.
To live with the uncertainty. the
senior lets his unconscious mind
do most of the worrying
That is, until some idiot comes 3—
long and asks that innocent question

.and then wonders why he is
greeted With suchunusunl reactions.

Due Sunday

The Scarletandblack willptlbr
lish the first of three planned
literary supplementsonrriday.
September 29 Members of the
college community have in the
past taken advantage oi the op-
portunity tosubmittheii-poems.
short stories. essays. And lir—
companying illustrations toi-
publication. often for the first
time.

The StiiB encourages all stu-
dents. faculty. alltl staff to Like
advantage oi this opportunity to
see their ounu’ni'kiupt'iltt, M is
lel'i.\l Should llt‘ Ill ‘0 llsvatiiIr
(‘1;

 

