Jazz cool concerned the recuperation of individuality in the arts against the century’s totalitarian ideologies. And the embodiment of cool was the improvising jazz musician, creating and recreating his individual voice nightly. Along with jazz cool there was also a subgenre called cool jazz, a romantic melodic sensibility that valued restraint, flow, and self expression over sonic power, rhythmic emphasis, and even virtuosity.
Jazz was the dominant subculture of the post war era, and its influential slang was cool’s first rebel code. In effect, cool was a password for an unstated code of ethics, when it crossed over in New York’s jazz clubs, every Beat Generation writer noticed. Jack Kerouac wrote a letter to Neal Cassady to explain his new theory of cool in 1950... it meant pleasant, somewhat meditative, and without tension, young people were acting cool, unemotional, withdrawn. Within a few years, the phrase play it cool, meaning, keep your emotions suppressed, appeared in hit songs.
Yet, the ethos of cool also has roots in West African cultures, where it is called itutu, or spiritual balance, among the Yoruba. Many African languages have a similar term, with cool as the literal translation of unusual calmness, to have this quality is to be known as a peacemaker, as a person able to cool out a situation, as a person who keeps his or her own counsel. In addition, cool rhythms are central to West African drumming practices. Cool rhythms are relaxed, steady, and supportive, hot rhythms, in contrast, are aggressive, heated, and propulsive... So when jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding played the White House in 2016, she simply stated, Jazz is urban cool.
Source: The Origins of Cool in Post WWII America by Joel Dinerstein
They Might Be Giants - By The Time You Get This
Jazz was the dominant subculture of the post war era, and its influential slang was cool’s first rebel code. In effect, cool was a password for an unstated code of ethics, when it crossed over in New York’s jazz clubs, every Beat Generation writer noticed. Jack Kerouac wrote a letter to Neal Cassady to explain his new theory of cool in 1950... it meant pleasant, somewhat meditative, and without tension, young people were acting cool, unemotional, withdrawn. Within a few years, the phrase play it cool, meaning, keep your emotions suppressed, appeared in hit songs.
Yet, the ethos of cool also has roots in West African cultures, where it is called itutu, or spiritual balance, among the Yoruba. Many African languages have a similar term, with cool as the literal translation of unusual calmness, to have this quality is to be known as a peacemaker, as a person able to cool out a situation, as a person who keeps his or her own counsel. In addition, cool rhythms are central to West African drumming practices. Cool rhythms are relaxed, steady, and supportive, hot rhythms, in contrast, are aggressive, heated, and propulsive... So when jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding played the White House in 2016, she simply stated, Jazz is urban cool.
Source: The Origins of Cool in Post WWII America by Joel Dinerstein
They Might Be Giants - By The Time You Get This
- Produced By: They Might Be Giants and Pat Dillett
- Release date: January 19, 2018
- Release on: I Like Fun album
"They Might Be Giants are best known for an unconventional and experimental style of alternative music. Over their career, the group has found success on the modern rock charts. More recently they have found success in the children's music genre, and in theme music for television and film."
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