The Salon @ Sonotheque & The Silver Room presents
REBIRTH OF THE COOL
Jazz Dance Listening Lounge - Past to Present
every 4th Wednesday of the month

9pm – 2am

$5 Cover – For free entrance RSVP: info@sonotheque.net

featuring Groove Merchants:
Joe Bryl (Sonotheque)
Eric Williams (The Silver Room)

Salonnierre: Ariana Kim

Link:
The Silver Room
http://www.thesilverroom.com/

“I’ll play it and tell you what it is later”
- Miles Davis

This quote by Miles Davis connotes an aloof indifference to the norm, and is heightened by an expression of artistic superiority that directly captures one facet of the aesthetic of “cool”. Davis’ sensibility emphasizes an important mystique of the outsider, in his case that of an African-American musician, who by his cool poise countered the oppression, rejection, and racism of American culture. “Cool”, however, can also be easily used to describe an attitude of inner peace and serenity, an absence of conflict and guilt.

This mutability is at the center a personal existential nature. “Cool” can distance itself from the normative with ironic detachment, and at other times appearing adversarial and confrontational while also being self-controlled and calmly assured. This evolving nature gave the concept of “cool” an essential part in the development of a post World War II aesthetic that combined various artists, filmmakers, architects, designers and musicians to lead a countercultural movement away from the emotional and social ties of the past. This movement emphasized a restrained, laid-back appearance, a notion of “cool” that was both clean and centered, an almost Taoist feeling of an absence of conflict and a composed simplicity of control and detachment.

When Davis recorded his groundbreaking album “Birth of the Cool” in June 1950 with composer/arranger Gil Evans, he was participating in a much larger movement. This mid-century modern aesthetic included designers like Charles and Ray Eames, abstract painters like Karl Benjamin and Helen Lundeberg, architects like Pierre Koenig and Richard Neutra, and filmmakers like Alain Resnais and John Cassavettes. All of the above laid the groundwork, giving birth to both beatnik culture and bohemianism. This notion of “cool” saw its further development in music with labels like Blue Note and Prestige, where photography and design complimented the artistic mannerisms of musicians like Jimmy Smith, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane.

At its core the notion of “cool” has its strength in its ability to refashion and remake itself from generation to generation. What is seen as “cool” will change from time to time. These eternal modulations allow the state of “cool” to survive both social and political changes and like some type of insect it mutates its behavior and characteristics by retaining its essence while changing its outward appearance. It nature is constantly in fashion because it is grounded in a combination of style and substance that is both rebellious and in harmony. This ability to juggle its inherent contradictions gives “cool” a mystique that is both material and amorphous.

To showcase the varied range of “cool”, Sonotheque will host a monthly residency titled “Rebirth of the Cool” on the 4th Wednesday of the month featuring Groove Merchants/Curators Joe Bryl and Eric Williams with Salonnierre Ariana Kim. “Rebirth of the Cool” intends to showcase those often little heard jazz-based gems that reside under the musical radar. Its format will be to connect the influences of past seminal “cool” artists with more current rising musicians. As Kelan Philip Cohran, co-founding member of Chicago’s influential AACM has stated: “Today we have music in abundance that lacks purpose. We lost respect and the power of our ancestors in these spiritual sciences. It is time for enlightened artists to step forward to share their light”.

It is our hope that “Rebirth of the Cool” will be a modernization of the listening lounge experience, a space where one can get lost in the various sonic styles and textures of a musically sophisticated environment. We will explore styles that range from classic west coast Jazz, Brazilian bossa-nova, drum n’ bass, spiritual soul, global grooves, now sound, nu jazz and much, much more.

We believe that the expressions of all of these forms are timeless and have an immediacy that touches both the mind and the soul. As Mr. Beatnick states in “Shook Magazine #2” …

“The beat is lost and reclaimed from one generation to the next, passed down from the forefathers to the grandchildren, disappearing from living consciousness and then reclaimed, revived, dug from the crate and spun out to a fresh audience. The beat is eternal."