Vuurvliegje dat de cape van het duister omsloeg en tussen kale taken lichtend verdween Het schuilt in dorre struiken In spleten van de schutting In scheuren in de blinde muur
Neerslaande rook maakt uitzicht onmogelijk met een stokje port hij in de as
‘net waren ze nog hier, de steen nog warm’ Zoals gewoonlijk alles gevlogen
De geur, de glans, de oogopslag met een stokje port hij in de as tot ten slotte een vonk, de allerlaatste overslaat en hij leven maakt uit al bijna koud geworden resten: zijn flakkerende vorm.
47 Rabinowitch’s Jazz sculptures
Wolff ’s camera, the result: his flickering shape. The artist is creating life out of cold, dead rests.129/130
On the picture Francis Wolff took of Ware in 1956, the bassist plays with his eyes closed and seems to be at the right place in the right moment; he knows exactly what he is doing and his fingers find the notes on his double-bass automatically. The tones lay a steady foundation for the song; the structure of rhythm and chords are hidden underneath his search for notes that surprise the listener and make him or her smile without knowing exactly why. The small movements of Wilbur Ware in space, his finger, wrist, arm and probably a tapping foot, do not have any purpose, but precisely those movements form a direct precipitation of Ware’s feelings at the moment of playing; they count at that specific moment.131
There is tension in the way Ware is holding his base, it is resting on its lower abdominal and together with his left thumb this gently prevents the instrument from falling on the ground. The whole weight of the double bass is just resting on its endpin: a small puncture that pierces the ground. The sculpture too is just resting on a few thin lines, like figure 11 illustrates. It is noticeable that those are the only lines connected to the f loor, everything else is lifted from the ground. The weight of the heavy steel, the mathematical structures, are abandoned by Rabinowitch constructing them in an unstable way. It is a deep expression of his acknowledge- ment; an enormous tendency of not being stable, all captured in this simple, flickering form.
129 Analysed by Henk Loman
130 Bebop in Rabinowitch words: ‘It is just now’. Only in the ‘here and now’, structure and spontaneity can be balanced 131 About this, Rabinowitch states: ‘our movements in space are purposeless, but they are there and important on the
moment itself’
When moving around the sculpture, the folding of it constitutes a rhythm of which the tempo is determined from my walking pass, Wilbur Ware is teaching me a lesson. My footsteps klick on the brick stone f loor – one / by / one - they echo in the light space of Rabinowitch’s studio and fade out softly.
4 Stan & Ollie or Handed Opposed Conics of One Size Bundled – for Shadow Wilson (1988)
Rossiere Shadow Wilson (1919-1959) was an old friend of Thelonious Monk. In 1947 the pianist invited him to play on a recording for Blue Note. Before, the drummer was not strongly identified with bebop, much of Wilson’s early work was with swing jazz orchestras of Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. Wilson derived his nickname from ‘his beautiful light touch with brushes’ in the words of bassist Peter Ind.132 According
to Papa Jo Jones, Shadow Wilson was the best ‘natural’ drummer he had ever heard; Wilson did much to liberate and modernize jazz drumming, in a very natural way – a key descriptive. The drummer was self-taught, ‘he worked out how and what he played by himself ’, his widow Audrey Wilson contends. Without completely breaking with the rhythmic continuity of jazz’s past, Wilson was responsible for devising the most appropriate responses in the music: he anticipated the rhythm and coloration of bebop.133
The sculpture, Stan & Ollie or Handed Opposed Conics of One Size Bundled – for Shadow Wilson, contains of ‘four differently developed operators’ of the same size. In a f lat form, it would be a so called ‘rectangular trapezium’: a two-dimensional closed-shape that has only one pair of parallel sides. ‘Develop’ is an industrial term for the breaking and
132 Ind, Peter. Jazz Visions: Lennie Tristano and His Legacy. United Kingdom: Equinox eBooks Publishing, 2009 133 Korall, Burt. ‘From the Past: Shadow Wilson - Jazz’s Mr. Natural’. Modern Drummer 28:6 (2004): 126-128, 130
fig. 12 Royden Rabinowitch. Stan & Ollie or Handed Opposed Conics of One Size Bundled – for Shadow Wilson. 1988. Hot-rolled steel, oiled. Four differently developed operators, each operator: 178 x 104 x 52 cm. Private collection, Ghent
49 Rabinowitch’s Jazz sculptures
fig. 16 1 : 2 : 2 : 2 : 2 : 2
fig. 15 ‘polygon extensions’ From: Bais, Sander. Cutting Edges: Reading the Hidden Geometry of Royden Rabinowitch (2016) p. 99
folding of, in this case, metal sheets. In order to develop a cone out of a f lat pattern, the sheet is divided into equal segments.
On figure 15, a drawing of physicist Sander Bais, we see: 1 : 2 : 2 : 2 - like a whole note is divided into a half note, a quarter note, an eighth note and a sixteenth note (figure 16). When one will keep doing this, a semi-circle is formed – like Shadow Wilson’s soft brushes. Sander Bais writes:
Limit = ∞ = semi-circle134
When a f lat sheet is divided in the infinity a semi-circle is formed. How paradoxical it is: such an abstract concept for such a concrete form. Shadow Wilson is not the first drummer to which Rabinowitch addresses a sculpture. In 1962 he made Three Homages to Jazz Drummers (Three Judgements on Origins of Abstract Thinking) for Art Blakey, Elvin Jones and Max Roach135. In figure 17 for instance, Bais illustrates his theory according to
Rabinowitch work ‘Second homage to Jazz Drummers: For Elvin Jones (2nd homage on Origins of Abstract Thinking)’ (1962) As observers, we tend to ‘finish’ the work, in our mind: the only sphere where abstraction can exist, separated from embodiment. In Abstraction extracts the underlying essence and remove every dependence on real world objects. By encouraging or literally moving the observer to ‘finish’ (as an open-work) the concrete sculpture in his mind, Rabinowitch reaches a paradoxical point where the abstract and the concrete, the structure and the spontaneity fuse.
The work Stan & Ollie or Handed Opposed Conics of One Size Bundled – for Shadow Wilson, can be compared to The Judgements. But in this case, the half-cones are placed horizon- tally, instead of vertically on the ground. Similarly though, we are encouraged to
134 Bais, Sander. Cutting Edges: Reading the Hidden Geometry of Royden Rabinowitch. Sante Fe Institute, University of Amsterdam: 2016. 99
complete the conics and to envisage the constructions as a whole conic.136 As Lerm-
Hayes illustrates, the constructions become the conical hats laurel and hardy wear. In the first part of the title, Rabinowitch points to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, a refer- ence he makes often. For him, the two comics are a personification of the paradoxical world of values and the world of facts. Here, Stan Laurel is unsettled, uncertain and is aware that values are not facts. He is less sentimental, states Rabinowitch, and aware of the difficulty of securing knowledge. Oliver Hardy is settled, certain and unaware that values are not facts and unaware that he has failed to know. Rabinowitch asks: ‘Do you have the courage to identify with Stan – his uncertainty – with his sentimen- tality? Or, do you lack this courage and, endangering those around you, identify with Ollie – with his certainty – his sentimentality?’137 (see following chapter 5.5).
Although the four parts are of the same size, the way they are broken, makes them look different. This concept makes me think of Rabinowitch’s recent construction from 2010 that is titled Stan and Ollie or ‘The main reason each is incomplete is the existence of the other.’ – For Lee Smolin. This installations too, contains of multiple steel forms of the same size and thickness, ellipses in this case. ‘How wonderful that they look so different!’ writes Frank Maes. Later he adds: ‘That variation demonstrates the inter- action between mathematical invariance (immutability) and the elusive multiplicity of ordinary experience’.138/139
136 Royden Rabinowitch: ‘[…] But, even more amazing to me was that the very simplest volume to construct was a cone, which could only be constructed in steel by joining two half cones. […]’ ‘Royden Rabinowitch on the cone’. E-mail interview. June 30, 2017
137 Rabinowitch, Royden. ‘Modern Ontology: The corollary of Modern Physics and the Content of my Art’. Institute for quantum computing University of Waterloo, Canada. 26 Mar. 2009. Lecture
138 Original text: ‘Alle onderdelen van deze twee installaties zijn stalen ellipsen van dezelfde grootte en dikte. Hoe verwonderlijke dat ze er zo verschillend uitzien! Die variatie getuigt van de wisselwerking tussen wiskundige invariantie (onveranderlijkheid) en de ongrijpbare veelvuldigheid van de gewone ervaring.’
139 Maes, Frank, Luc Derycke. Royden Rabinowitch “Murphy” or Rudolf Steiner Exposed by Samuel Beckett Adriaan Verwée
Come se niente fosse: Bezoekersgids. Veurne: vzw EMERGENT galerie & vereniging, 2016
fig. 18 Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. From: Rabinowitch, Royden. ‘Modern Onthology: The corollary of Modern Physics and the Content of my Art’. Institute for quantum computing University of Waterloo, Canada. 26 Mar. 2009. Lecture. p. 42.
fig. 17 Royden Rabinowitch. Second homage to Jazz Drummers: For Elvin Jones (2nd homage on Origins of Abstract Thinking) 1962. Steel. 30 x240 x 60 cm.
51 Rabinowitch’s Jazz sculptures
fig. 20 Ernst Haas. Thelonious Monk, Newport. 1958
fig. 19 Rabinowitch, Royden. Stan & Ollie or Handed Operator Bundle Construc- tion trough Three Axes – for Thelonious Monk. 1992.
Hot-rolled steel. 452 x 123 x 91.5 cm. Private collection, Ghent.
5 Stan & Ollie or Handed Operator Bundle Construction trough Three Axes – for Thelonious Monk. 1992. Hot-rolled steel. 452 x 123 x 91.5 cm
With the construction of his most recent jazz sculpture, Stan & Ollie or Handed Operator Bundle Construction trough Three Axes – for Thelonious Monk, Rabinowitch found the form he was looking for; a form ‘one has to move around to see it’. Although the conical shape is not visible at first glance, Rabinowitch tells me the constructions ‘are just very parsimonious conics literally conceived to accommodate the operations Monk himself was involved with.’ The movements and shapes of the universe, the conical sections, prompted Rabinowitch to find a form which is even more reduced: a parsi- monious 140 conic – like the cinders that are reduced into sand.
Ironically, Rabinowitch explains, Monk’s spontaneous operations in space – back and forth - are conceived into a set of numbers.
The sculpture for Thelonious Monk is named after Stan and Ollie. Remarkable, is that Rabinowitch connected Monk to Stan and Ollie without knowing that the pianist referred to the duo himself. In Schiet niet op de pianist: over Jazz, Bernlef quotes Micha Mengelberg, a Dutch jazz composer and piano player, who met Thelonious Monk in Amsterdam:
140 par·si·mo·ni·ous (pär’sə-mō’nē-əs) adj. 1 Excessively sparing or frugal
Monk turned out to be a man who was always playing little games. I invited him to sit with (in between) me and my wife for a minute. I asked him a lot of questions, but what did he do? He listened to my question, remembered exactly what I said and asks this exact same question to my wife. My wife was saying: what is he talking about? Then he turned to me and repeated her question to me. A fantastic activity!141
After this quote, Bernlef places a fragment of the script for the movie Our Wife by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. In this scene, Hardy wants to marry a woman and in the company of Laurel they jump in the car and speed up to the justice of peace to marry quickly. Laurel is doing the talking. While Hardy and his fiancée stay in the car, Stan is ringing the bell. The justice’s wife opens the door.
Woman: What do you want?
Laurel (to Hardy): What do you want? Hardy: We want to get married
Laurel: Oh yeah, we want to get married. Hardy: Not we, us.
Laurel (to the woman): Not we, us. Woman: Well. How about it? Laurel (to Hardy): How about it? Hardy: How about what?
Laurel (to the woman): How about what? Women: What are you talking about?
Laurel (to Hardy): What are you talking about? Hardy: Tell her we want to get married. Laurel (to the woman): We want to get married. Woman: There is a couple who wants to get married pa. Man (off-screen): I will be right up.
Woman (to Laurel): He will be right up. Laurel: Who? 142
141 Bernlef, J. Schiet niet op de pianist: over jazz. Amsterdam: Querido Uitgeverij B.V., 1993
142 Our Wife. Directed by James Horne, performed by Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Babe London, James Finlayson, Blance Payson, Ben Turpin, Charley Rogers. MGM, May 1931
53 Rabinowitch’s Jazz sculptures
When Monk was sitting in between Micha Mengelberg and his wife, he referred to Laurel and to Hardy. By repeating questions, Monk moved the conversation from one to another, back and forth without really saying anything. Still, he gave the conversa- tion an unexpected turn. When listening to Monk’s play, the intro of Epistrophy 143
for instance, we hear that he is doing quite the same on his piano. Professor of musi- cology Gabriel Solis analysed the song, performed by the quartet in Carnegie Hall, 1958. He points out the ‘motivic repetitiveness’ of the song and the ‘seamless, looping- around quality’ of the riffs. Although it is a thirty-two bar AABA form, the composi- tion avoids the lyricism and end-directed harmony of the most standards, states Solis. Instead, he calls the song a ‘cyclical, riff-driven piece, ideally suited to open-ended, vamp like performances that build energy (…)’.144
Bernlef describes the way Micha Mengelberg interpreted Monk’s music as ‘a perfect example of how one has to deal with tradition’. He uses Monk’s material in order to work on it thematically. In doing so, Mengelberg is able to add something to Monk’s work, Bernlef explains. Then he quotes trombonist Roswell Rudd: ‘a key trait of this music is: something very old and new at the same time.’ 145
I am moved by Rabinowitch’s sculpture for Monk. Back and forth, up and down, in and around. This back and forth movement is visualised in this sculpture. First, the sculpture contains of three axes, that have the quality of being in the middle of a movement. The axes themselves are not materially visualised but the movement around is: they are shaped by the steel plates. We are being led by the straight lines and the axes to move back and forth. Second, the sculpture contains of four parallel
143 Monk, Thelonious, and John Coltrane. Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. EMI/Blue Note/ Thelonious Records, 2005. CD
144 Solis, Gabriel. Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014 145 Bernlef, J. Schiet niet op de pianist: over jazz. Amsterdam: Querido Uitgeverij B.V., 1993. 181
lines, which are of the same length but broken up by a space or by a perpendicular plate. From the top, the sculpture contains of straight lines and perpendicular lines, like a grid. From the side, we see a lot of diagonal lines, through which we also enter the sculpture. The sculpture’s fixed parallel lines could be a musical stave from which Monk is improvising, the plates bend to the side and leave the stave – they open up the space to Coltrane, Ware and Wilson. The diagonal lines don’t fit our expectation, just like the timing and dissonant notes of Monk. With a natural sense of rhythm, one expects and feels how beats and breaks should follow up each other. With his strange timing, Monk goes beyond this natural assumption. This wakes you up and makes you conscious: what was I expecting and why?
In Stan & Ollie or Handed Operator Bundle Construction trough Three Axes – for Thelonious Monk, Rabinowitch found the form he was looking for. As with the cinders, Rabinowitch’s parsimonious form is cut down to almost nothing. In the fifth and last poem for Stave Lacy, Bernlef even reduces music: into silence, to almost nothing (because there can never be no sound at all) (see poem next page)
‘The melody worn at the sleeves’: a rejection of embroidery or a reference to a more than well-known melody, of which just the chords are recognizable: like the jazz standards that are remained of the swing-era and form the basis for a lot of Bebop music – ‘very old and new at the same time’.146 Lacy is on his way to waste ground, here he can make his
art. He thins out his hair, just one hair is enough to f loat; he strives to embody this looseness: he is a fallen or falling angel. ‘Something so light was never so heavy’: a paradox that refers to his f loating state, the intensity of the notes he plays, the heaviness of
146 Roswell Rudd about Bebop music. From: Bernlef, J. Schiet niet op de pianist: over jazz. Amsterdam: Querido Uitgeverij B.V., 1993. 181
55 Rabinowitch’s Jazz sculptures
Stilte
De melodie op de mouwen versleten van de akkoorden alleen nog wat wapperende flarden In lege schoenen stapt hij voort langs jerrycans en flats op weg naar braakliggend terrein. Kaalslag maakt hem sterker hij dunt zijn kapsel uit tot op de laatste haar waaraan hij zweeft Zo zwaar is nog nooit
zo iets lichts geweest; toon die verliefd zwicht onder eigen soortelijk gewicht. Zo verdwijnt de danser in de dans de engel in zijn noodzakelijkheid. Eindelijk valt de stilte te snijden.
meaning. Just like Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes description of Rabinowitch’s works: ‘products of simple, industrial production processes are, on the one hand, rendered light and humorous and can, on the other, provide an image of that lightness being disturbed […]’147 - disturbed by its own gravity?
Silence
The melody worn at the sleeves of the chords just a few last flapping snatches In empty shoes he walks on past jerrycans and flats on his way to waste ground.
Clearance makes him stronger he thins his hairdo out down to the last hair on which he floats Something so light
was never so heavy; tone that, in love, gives way under its own specific gravity. Thus the dancer disappears in the dance the angel in its necessity.
At last the silence can be cut with a knife.
(Translated by Paul Vincent)
147 Lerm Hayes, Christa-Maria. ‘Concerning the Work of Royden Rabinowitch: Our Disenchanted Ontology and Paradoxical Hope’. Royden Rabinowitch: Ghent. Gent: AsaMER, 2014. 27
Now, in this reduced form, ‘[…] the dancer disappears in the dance / the angel in its necessity’. Just like we can get into a state of losing ourselves whilst dancing and surrender to this feeling of not knowing. Unconsciously our body needs to move to the rhythms; ‘we have to take seriously those internal rhythms’, to repeat Rabinowitch. ‘At last, the silence can be cut with a knife’, the last sentence about what is left: almost nothing - but full