Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Have I read, "Blue Like Jazz?"

Have I read “Blue Like Jazz?” No. Donald Miller seems like a wonderful man. I’ve skimmed his book (especially the chapter on “Penguin Sex”) and can tell that Miller is extremely creative and a wonderful writer. The reason why I have not read the whole book is because I can’t get past the first two pages. Miller writes, “I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music…I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve...” “In America, the first generation out of slavery invented jazz music. It is a free-form expression. It comes from the soul, and it is true.” I have not read the book because I can’t get past these words. I am enthralled with this connection between God and jazz…jazz and God. Perhaps someday I’ll read the rest of the book, but for now these opening words have given me enough to think about.

5 Comments:

Blogger Constantine said...

I read it with a good deal of pleasure. It gets a tad saccharine at times, but for the most part it serves up some worthy insight. I agree too that he writes beautifully.

11:58 PM  
Blogger Matthew Francis said...

The best Jazz (for me, Coltrane a la "New Orleans Suite") avoids both nostalgia and utopian dreaming. It may lament or extol, but not in those idolatrous ways. It says something different... improvising the soul of something new.

10:50 AM  
Blogger Matthew Francis said...

Doh! I meant Ellington's "New Orleans Suite" and Coltrane's "Bitches Brew."

10:51 AM  
Blogger jazztheo said...

i'm with you matthew, thanks for comin' in...let's talk some Trane.

9:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just read it, man...

kelly

4:57 PM  

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