By: Lida Prypchan
Of all music, the only true music is Jazz. (Julio Cortázar)
With profound admiration I dedicate this article to Taller Experimental (“Experimental Workshop”), the jazz group that inspired it.
Schopenhauer said, “Music is not just something extra in the world – music is a world” and on this same subject Jorge Luis Borges said, “Imagine that instead of five senses we had just one – the sense of hearing. What we see, touch, taste and smell would vanish and only hearing would remain. Our world would be so complex, even more complex, than the one we know and we would experience it through the medium of music.”
If Borges’ world were possible, I think it would be more complex and at the same time simpler. (This is no contradiction, for the line that separates extremes is often very fine. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Great inventions, many of them anyway, often seem obvious and simple things, yet to achieve that simplicity the inventors had to labor through vastly complex and lengthy analysis.) We would have a world of more intense sensations, a more exciting and intriguing world and, at the same time, a simpler world because words would not exist. To my way of thinking words aren’t necessary. Rather, they are detrimental, since us humans have the habit of destroying the beautiful, the interesting, the inherent passion of life with routine, an overabundance of explanations and the compromise that words carry with them. Moreover, actions are more than enough. Words are carried away in the wind, while actions speak for themselves and need only to be set into motion. Words are no more than passive manifestations of unfulfilled promise, locked away in a closet. In a word, we would have a world of awareness and music. If we add the notion of time-space, the result would be a world of awareness and music where it would be possible to do away with space and still have time, because time means progression – the step from one level of awareness to another, the silent and inexorable river that flows through every corner of space. Music is a world far from the world. It is more sublime, precisely “a world apart,” an independent world which needs no instruments – instruments are needed to produce music.
Now that I am on the subject of music, from here on I would like to talk about Jazz.
Jazz has the peculiarity of allowing each of the musicians in a group to create the music; there is no intermediary in Jazz to play an interpretive role, as in “classical” music. It would therefore not be inappropriate to change the term “classical.”
Julio Cortázar once said, “Of all music, the only true music is Jazz.” Jazz is to music what surrealism is to literature. In literature surrealism is “pure inspiration.” In music this is equivalent to the improvisation Jazz permits its interpreters, that’s to say, creativity not ruled by principles of logic and notes written down on a stave but, rather, emanating from deep within – which explains the kinship between jazz and surrealism.
I find myself writing about music when I never thought I would have the opportunity to do so. It seems strange, but in fact several “coincidences” have led me to do this, and I am not one to believe in “coincidence.” First, I found myself reading a story by Cortázar, El Perseguidor [entitled the Pursued in its translated version], where the main character, Johnny Carter, finds his inspiration in the distressing life of Charlie Parker who, in his desperate search for something better, uses Jazz to transport himself to a more agreeable reality. The next day, I was listening to the group Taller Experimental, and the following day I read the book Conversaciones con Cortázar [“Conversations with Cortázar”] where Cortázar reveals his feelings about Jazz. Of these three “coincidences,” it was the second that motivated me to write this article – which is precisely why I have dedicated this article to the group. I have listened to them several times and have to admit that the last time I was really impressed – I think they have come a long way.
It is truly extraordinary how thy have managed to stay together over the years without any help. It’s easy to understand why so many musical groups in Valencia break up, considering how little importance is given to art, especially music, and least of all to Jazz. Sadly, one must have great devotion and a will of iron not to be affected by the indifference shown toward everything in this city. To top it all, we mustn’t forget the strange way we have of underestimating whatever surrounds us. We do not value our artists until we learn about their success in other countries. If these young members of “Experimental Workshop” lived in another country they would have been given every opportunity available to develop their musical abilities over the years.
I extend my most heartfelt congratulations to Taller Experimental because; 1) they have not allowed themselves to be dragged down by the “wave of indifference towards art” which sadly characterizes our dear Valencia; 2) because they have stayed together, which is not at all easy, especially since they have had neither material nor emotional support; 3) because their improvisation which surrounds them and especially their ability to transmit to us, the listeners, the passion and internal ecstasy they feel when they play and which is responsible for producing good music; and 5) I personally congratulate Enrique Lara (saxophone and flute) in particular, because he is a second Stevie Wonder.
Finally, I would like to quote Benavente who said: “Jazz? Jazz is akin to our souls, where, among the multitudinous sound and cacophony of our lives, the quintessential melody lays hidden, surfaces, and then hides again. It is the divine beauty perceptible in all our souls, if only we approach them with love.”
