Pynchon & Jazz

[Terrance]

Morrison's sixth novel, Jazz (1992) finds an emblem for the
interpretation of self, community, tradition, and renewal in the formal
requirements and social history of jazz music. 




in my listening to most early jazz I hear far more resemblance to the
call-and-response pattern of black (and many other) folk traditions than
to European counterpoints. The lead instrument, usually a trumpet, plays
a phrase, to which the other instruments, trombone, clarinet, rhythm,
etc. gives answers. These may be and usually are somewhat overlapped,
fitted together in very complex movements. But one does not listen
vertically, one listens sequentially. And this skipping back and forth
among the instruments as they call and respond irregularly against the
fundamental beat, not at all the rhythmically fixed chordal polyphony of
Bach, is what gives jazz its particularity, authenticity, and immanent
cultural anatomy among all the world's music. 



In jazz, answering the call of another not only serves the community but
also sets the stage for individual achievement. One player's is taken by
another, who revises it and gives it an individual stamp, before passing
it on, while the piece as a whole moves forward all the while. Jazz is
both highly individual and highly collaborative. 

There is a telling moment in GR when Slothrop receives a dose of truth
serum and spews forth a wild fantasy involving a blues harp, Malcolm X,
and Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, with a bit of stereotypical African
American dialect thrown in. Jazz is a suggestive model for Pynchon as
well as for Morrison. In the Introduction to Slow Learner Pynchon cites
the "wide availability of recorded jazz" in the 1950s as a formative
influence, a counterweight to the "undeniable power of tradition." 



.jazz ultimately plays a minor role in the imaginative logic of
Pynchon's texts. 


See Patell