The very excellent Noël has kindly made available two new articles that he has written for non-English language journals. Noël is also a contributor to the Companion. a companion to michael oakeshottcivil associationLiberal educationMichael Oakeshottnoel o’sullivan
Released on the 1970 LP Hot Rats, “The Gumbo Variations” is a studio jam session. A basic drum beat, a wobbling bass line, a simple melodic frame, and the stage was set for the three main soloists of the day. First, Ian Underwood delivers one of the best saxophone solos he recorded for Zappa: crossing…
A nice piece (an analogy) by Matt Glaser that’s been around for a while. If all of Western philosophy is merely commentary on Plato, then all of jazz is, in some sense, commentary on Louis. Armstrong’s achievement is amply evident in two solos on “Basin Street Blues.” JazzLouis Armstrongmatt glaserPhilosophy
A report on the opening of the Mardi Gras parade season: Krewe du Vieux’s bawdy theme: “Krewe du Vieux Comes early!” carnavalKrewe du VieuxMardi Grasnew orleans
Here are more extracts from Noel Malcolm’s essay for the Oakeshott Companion: Malcolm’s recent work has been listed as one of The Economist books of the year. Oakeshott’s essay on “Rationalism in Politics” does make some attempt to locate the birth of rationalism historically. He observes that “the moment when it shows itself unmistakably” is in…
H/T to my chum and fellow scotch aficionado Peter Brooks for pointing to this article. Talk about whisky on ice: Three bottles of rare, 19th century Scotch found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton’s abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent Saturday after a distiller flew them to Scotland to…
Here’s a study that would seem to be a companion to the earlier Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation, Allen R. Braun the shared investigator. Allen R. BraunCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessCreativityDorsolateral prefrontal cortexFreestyle rapFunctional magnetic resonance imagingimprovisationJazzJazz ImprovisationmusicNeural correlateNeural network
H/T to David Livingstone-Smith for pointing to this article. Exploring the trend of neuro-rejectionism. Neuroscience is in vogue. In the mainstream news and on pop-science bestseller lists, in academic departments and in deli refrigerators, interest in all things brain-related continues to grow, to be sold, and to be consumed. But the growth in public interest…
Louis Prima honored with his own New Orleans music and food festival. Louis is one of those people who along with Pops and Fats just put me in a good mood immediately. lena primaLouis Primanew orleansNew Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
A terrific talk (see abstract below) by Evan Thompson as a curtain raiser to his forthcoming book from Columbia University Press entitled Waking, Dreaming, Being: New Light on the Self and Consciousness from Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy. In the meantime check out the expansive review of his Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of…
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