Ralph Ellison :: Music Literature Papers

Ralph EllisonBa-Bap. . .he hit the snare so hard and so clean-right with the bass actor, and individu everyy of Elvin Joness four extremities went into motion. The soft played one of those thick McCoy Tyner chords with that deep attentive jazz sound that makes my body twitch ever so somewhat with momentary satisfaction and anticipation. A split- act descending right-handed run from the piano and Bshhh. . .Elvin let the symbol resonate and moved in with his deadly light crisp high hat cht, cht, cht, cht, in effect(p) as the horns stated the blood in unison a fourth apart.Then, with a punchy five- annotation line the sax player began his solo. After that phrase he stopped and waited-allowing a some bars to roll by as he felt the daily round and absorbed the harmonies the piano player offered in response to his line. With his head exercise set down as if in prayer, he countered with a agelong, smoother second phrase that elaborated on the first one but so confidently let h is last unresolved note bang come forward over the audience. I felt my legs moving under me and my head bobbing slightly, and my call on the carpet began to open and shut tightly as if to sing the next phrase. As the solo progressed, I felt I had to hold my breath, waiting for each of the horn players thoughts to finish before I could take a good breath. The phrases began to get faster and closer together until he was rapidly fervor notes give away of his horn, and there was increasingly less space to breathe. The notes came in clusters and bursts of notional energy. His ideas seemed to flow from deep within the realms of the unconscious until he seemed no longer to be in control of his thoughts.Yet, despite the speed of the notes and ideas, he was solely in control and fooled everyone by deftly taking his time-moving slowly out of the surmount so subtly that the audience didnt even notice until five transactions later with sweat pooling on his forehead, he had taken his so lo all the way outside of the music and continued pushing his band moreover on and outer still. Elvin came crashing down on his kit playing enraged poly patterns that evolved into a rhythmic game of tag with the horn player that just got more and more intense until at last the horn player reached way up and seemed to pull a screeching note out of the ceiling and scream out into the club, before physically bending that note back into the music.