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Abstract
John Cage conceived of indeterminacy in close historical relationship to modern jazz improvisation during the 1950s but disavowed the latter through a strategy of negation and a rationale based on personal taste. The acquisition of taste is intentional, and Cage's taste for jazz shifted according to his status and identity within the avant-garde, from an interest in hot music that began in the late 1930s to an intransigent rejection of improvisation in the late 1940s until the close of his career in 1992. This essay examines the social basis of Cage's jazz distaste by analyzing his early contact with experimental composer and jazz historian William Russell, his first magnetic tape work Imaginary Landscape No. 5 (1952), which sampled popular jazz records, and a 1965 performance with the Joseph Jarman Quartet in Chicago.
Notes
[1] Cage gave three lectures at Darmstadt in 1958 under the title ‘Composition as Process’: ‘Changes’ (September 6), ‘Indeterminacy’ (September 8), and ‘Communication’ (September 9). My essay draws on ideas further contextualized in Chapter 4 of ‘In no uncertain musical terms: The cultural politics of John Cage's indeterminacy’, 2008, pp. 208–317. My thanks to George Lewis, Douglas Mitchell, Marty Brody, Carolyn Brown, and the editors of this volume David Nicholls and Ben Piekut for their comments at various stages of this essay.
[2] D. T. Suzuki brought Western attention to the first-century Mahayana text, considered a direct record of the Buddha's words, in Studies in the La[ndot]kāvatāra Sūtra (London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1930) and also authored its first English translation, The La[ndot]kāvatāra Sūtra: A Mahayana text (London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1932).
[3] ‘Oriental’ referred to Hindu improvisation based on raga and tala (Cage, Citation1946) while ‘hot music’ referred to traditional jazz originating in turn-of-the-century New Orleans (Gendron, Citation1995). A small flyer announcing the ‘Credo’ lecture indicated that records would be played. The flyer is titled ‘What Next in American Art?’ and saved in a scrapbook at the John Cage Archive at Northwestern University (Miller, Citation2002, Citation2006; Patterson, 1996, pp. 63, 255). Thanks to David Patterson and Leta Miller for clarifying the flyer's context.
[4] On the discovery of Jazz Study in 1989, see Tan, 2004. The score and mailing envelope are held in folder 91, John Cage Music Manuscript Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York, NY.
[5] Tamara Levitz (Citation2005) explores a causal link between the ‘Africanist’ elements in Syvilla Fort's choreography for Bacchanale and Cage's invention of the prepared piano. Indeed, Boulez had compared Cage's prepared piano to the African sanza in 1949 (Nattiez, 1993, p. 27).
[6] Gioia locates the myth in early twentieth-century Paris, aligning founding French revivalist jazz historians (Hugues Panassié, Charles Delaunay, and Robert Goffin) with the intellectual draw of primitivism: ‘the limitations of the music's earliest practitioners have been depicted as their greatest attributes.’
[7] A citation to jazz appeared as late as 1951, again with regard to rhythmic structure: ‘This is a structural idea not distant in concept from Hindu tala … Anton Webern and Erik Satie and hot jazz’ (Cage, Citation1951, p. 63).
[8] Russell performed at the Mills College concerts on 27 July 1939 and 18 July 1940. During this time, Russell also contributed to the 1939 anthology Jazzmen, Modern Music, the 500-page history-discography The Jazz Record Book (New York: Smith & Durrell, 1942) and wrote on boogie-woogie, New Orleans style, blues, and Louis Armstrong for Panassié-Delaunay's bilingual Paris journal Jazz-Hot. See also his ‘Jazz Sources,’ Dance Observer 7, no. 10 (December 1940): 140–141, 144. Russell's 3 Dance Movements and 3 Cuban Pieces were later included in the first of the Time Contemporary Sound Series produced by Earle Brown in 1961 (Hoek, Citation2004).
[9] Fisher (1940) includes a photo of Russell playing the yang qin from his large collection of Chinese instruments and mentions Russell's plans to write a thesis on the rhythms and instruments of either Asia or American jazz.
[10] Cage letter to Peter Yates, 24 December 1940, Folder 1, Box 3, Peter Yates Papers, Mandeville Special Collections, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA. Christopher Shultis and András Wilheim propose 1936 or 1937 as more accurate dates for Quartet (Miller, Citation2006, p. 59 n. 45).
[11] Russell's Fugue and Varèse's Ionisation were both premiered at Carnegie Hall on 6 March 1933; Fugue was also published that month in Cowell's New Music. Cage may have first heard Russell's music on 28 May 1934 when 3 Dance Movements and Ionisation were featured in a New Music Society concert in San Francisco, two works he credited for inspiring his percussion experiments (Cage, Citation1948b [1993], p. 32; Mead, Citation1981, pp. 284-290).
[12] Cage first featured an amplified coil in Imaginary Landscape No. 3 (1942). On the 1946 collaboration, see Gara, Citation1959, pp. 90–91; Vaughan, Citation1997, pp. 37–38. Cunningham's recital program indicates that Cage also performed an instrumental prelude; Merce Cunningham Dance Company Archive, New York, NY. Around this time, Cunningham would go dancing at the Savoy Ballroom and hear jazz at the Village Vanguard. George Avakian recalled going to hear jazz with Cage at the Stuyvesant Casino at the time and recalled introducing Cage and Cunningham to Dodds (personal correspondence, 28 March 2006). Phil Schaap believes Cage was introduced to Dodds by New York Herald Tribune jazz critic and Circle Records founder Rudi Blesh (personal communication, 21 March 2006). It is possible that Russell, who was in New York recording for his American Music label, was also a facilitator.
[13] Unpublished choreographic notes for Portrait of a Lady, Folder 7, Box 15, Jean Erdman Papers, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York, NY.
[14] Erdman had also featured improvisation in Ad Lib (1943), for which Cage wrote music to replace that by Gregory Tucker.
[15] For more on the score and rhythmic structure, see Kim, 2008, pp. 268–281 and Pritchett, 1988, pp. 178–185. A full analysis of Landscape No. 5 is precluded by the absence of Cage's sound charts for the work.
[16] In Fetterman's 1989 interview, Erdman played a reel-to-reel copy she had used in performances. Fetterman donated his interview to the John Cage Archive at Northwestern, and this second-generation recording is what I examined. Miriam Roskin Berger also provided me with a second-generation cassette recording of Erdman's copy based on Erdman's plans to revive Portrait in the 1970s. Neither copy corresponds precisely to the 3-minute duration of Cage's score (Austin, Citation2004, p. 194; Cage, Citation1959a, p. 85; Fetterman, Citation1996, p. 19). It is unknown whether the original master reel for Cage's 1952 realization survives. Volker Straebel recently located a reel-to-reel copy in the archive of Louis Barron and in the David Tudor Papers of the Getty Research Institute, the latter of which has been digitized (personal communication, 30 May 2012). Thanks to William Fetterman, Miriam Roskin Berger, Nancy Allison, Daniel Entin, and Charles Perrier for assistance with research materials and to Phil Schaap for his expertise on the jazz samples.
[17] On the local urban renewal, see Bruce Sagan's retrospective issue of Hyde Park Herald (21 July 2004). Also invited for the festival were the Alba-Reyes Spanish Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Robert Joffrey Ballet Company, principal dancers of the New York City Ballet, Nala Najan performing classical Indian dances, and Alvin Ailey Dance Theater. The festival marked the re-opening of the Harper Theater, which the Sagans owned. They also oversaw the weekly publication of the Hyde Park Herald, the office of which was adjacent to the theater.
[18] ‘Dance Notes,’ Chicago Tribune (21 November 1965), F12; Chicago Maroon (23 November 1965): 7; Hyde Park Herald (24 November 1965), 1.16. Douglas Mitchell did not recall a second concert (personal communication, 17 February 2006), and there is no evidence that it occurred. The Cunningham dancers did not attend the midnight concert and retired to their hotel rooms after the dinner following the dance concerts (personal communication, with Lewis Lloyd, Gus Solomons Jr., Andres Mannik, and Carolyn Brown).
[19] Walmsley responded more favorably to Improvisation #4 by the Quartet, and three works by the Jarman Quintet (Jarman, alto saxophone, Fred Anderson, tenor saxophone, Billy Brimfield, trumpet, Charles Clark, bass, Arthur Reed, drums), all performed without Cage.
[20] Joseph Jarman personal scrapbook provided to the author by Jarman. The heading on the document reads: ‘This note is to acquaint you with the contemporary music of Joseph Jarman: It contains statements on Jarman's music by some of the reviewers who have written about him, and a statement from the artist concerning the nature and source of his art.’
[21] Fontaine filmed in London over seven days, with Kirk performing at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club and Cage reciting text at various locations, including the Saville Theatre where Cage was engaged. Fontaine was a jazz musician aware of Cage's dislike of jazz and planned for Cage to meet Kirk in the film. Cage was content, however, to remain in an echo chamber into which Fontaine played recordings of Kirk's music. Dick Fontaine, personal communication, 9 December 2005.