V.V.(2) Re: Sphere and Monk

[Alan Westrope]

On Sun, 29 Oct 2000, Don Corathers <crawdad at one.net> wrote:

>It is an alto carved from ivory -- and excuse me for interrupting myself,
>but has anybody ever heard of such a thing?

When Ornette first appeared on the NY scene, he played a white plastic
alto.  Many of the critics and musicians who derided him found this a
convenient target - a "toy alto" - for their venom.

>It's just too bad that accepting M.S. as a character based on Monk,
>or at least honoring Monk, involves validating an assertion made by
>Jules Seigel.

Heh...can't we give the devil his due, especially as the holidays approach,
and the gutlessly overdubbed strings play carols in the background? :-)

>s~Z writes:

>>Why is the character playing a sax rather than a piano? There's not even a
>>piano in the ensemble, which points more in the direction of Ornette
>>Coleman.

IMO, jbor's analysis is correct:

>>Re. Sphere as Monk or Coleman. Why does it have to be either/or? Why not
>>both/and, a composite fictionalisation? Charlie Parker is referred to by
>>full name and nickname (60.5-6); I can see no reason that Pynchon wouldn't
>>refer to the one or the other directly by name if that's who he meant.

Seems to me a novelist in the early '60s who wanted to portray a black
jazz musician on the fringes of the avant-garde could do a lot worse
that making him an amalgam of Monk, the hipster's hipster, and Coleman,
the torch-bearer for the New Thing at the time.

The lack of piano reminds us of the Duke di Angelis quartet in "Entropy."
Many jazz players of the time, especially the avant-garde, regarded the
piano as a relic of the European harmonic system, which they were trying
to escape from, and Sphere is certainly portrayed as an innovative musician.

>And what is the significance of the name McClintic?

I've never found a satisfactory explanation for this, though the name is
vaguely palindromic and has always suggested mirrors to me...a reflecting
sphere, perhaps.  Dunno.  Next contestant...

-- 
Alan Westrope

Whish!  A gull.  Gulls.  Far calls.  Coming, far!  End here.