Why I Think Jazz Cow Understands the Secrets of the Universe
Why I Think Jazz Cow Understands the Secrets of the Universe
And what that has to do with the Sun and the Moon
It seems unlikely the meaning of life should be revealed to us by a cow that plays the saxophone. The cow is called Jazz Cow, the eponymous hero of a new animation by John Lumgair, and written by yours truly. But life is full of surprises.
In other ways, however, it isn’t. Life – like jazz – has a reassuringly predictable rhythm to it. It’s what I’ve been writing about here on Cary’s Almanac in which I’ve been listening to the liturgical calendar and the passing of these seasons. These are fundamental building blocks of reality. It says so in Genesis chapter 1-
FX: RECORD SCRATCH
You: Wait. Is Genesis 1 how you think the world was actually created?
Me: Yes.
You: But it’s not meant to be taken literally, is it?
Me: Isn’t it?
You: There is light before the sun is created!
Me: Yes. And there’s light in Revelation after the sun has gone away again.
You: I’m sure I heard somewhere that Genesis 1 is a song?
Me: Yes. It probably is. And I think we live in a song.
You: Erm…
Me: Isn’t it interesting that in The Magician’s Nephew, Aslan creates Narnia with a song? CS Lewis writes “In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing.”
You: Is that the one with the wardrobe?
Me: No, The Magician’s Nephew is the one with the rings.
You: Isn’t that Lord of the Rings?
Me: No. Although in The Silmarillion, I believe there’s also a song at the start of the universe and… Shall we stop this dialogue and go back to how we were?
You: Please.
For me, Genesis 1 is the source code for the universe. It’s a seven-day song. Maybe it’s in 7/4 timelike Unsquare Dance by Dave Brubeck which makes you want to clap along.
How is the time governed according to Genesis 1? By the sun and the moon.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” (Genesis 1:14-16)
If I were writing a blog about comedy, I’d be focussing on those last five words, which is probably the largest understatement in recorded history. If you’re wondering about the billions of stars in the billions of galaxies, then yes, God ‘also’ made those. Now that’s funny.
The Sun and the Moon
We’re focussing on the purpose of the sun and the moon, to govern the day and the night. But they also serve as signs, to make sacred times and days and years. Religious festivals in the Old Testament are governed by the moon. We still live with the legacy of that. It’s why Easter, which is Passover weekend, is very late next year (20th April), much earlier two years later (28th March) and then falls on April Fool’s Day in 2029.
Today, we have our own liturgical calendar where there are two or three rhythms at play. Or maybe they are melodies weaving in and out of each other like a fugue by Bach.
We have the Easter cycle – governing Lent, Ascension and Trinity Sunday – determined by the moon, which slips around the calendar here and there. But the overall structure is based on Jesus Christ himself, the Sun of Righteousness, his birth at Christmas, firmly planted on 25th December every year. That is a Quarter Day. Nine months earlier is Lady Day, another one of the ‘Quarter Days’. The others are Midsummer Day on 24th June which is the Feast of St John the Baptist; and Michaelmas Day on 29th September, the Feast of St Michael and all Angels.
There are long and short rhythms. The Earth’s orbit around the Sun gives us the year. Every seventh year, there used to be a Sabbath year in Israel. Every seventh Sabbath year was a Jubilee year when indentured labourers were freed, debts were cancelled and land returned.
As the earth orbits, it also turns, so there is evening and there is morning every day. Every seventh day, there is the Sabbath at the end of the week. Now it’s the Lord’s Day, at the start of the week.
On top of this, every year, we have four seasons. These come and go, bringing their own varieties. And the climate, in turn, has always waxed and waned.
Now You Has Jazz Cow
All of these above function as rhythms, melodies and harmonies, structured but infinitely varied, all woven into creation from the beginning. It’s a song.
In music, especially jazz, we have the chord sequence and melody. Once established, we go around again with different instruments. And then there is improvisation on the melody. And the improvisation only works because we know the melody and the structure.
Jazz Cow knows all about this. He gets it. But here’s what he doesn’t get: why doesn’t everyone else get it? And why do people keep coming to him to solve their problems, and save them from Dr Popp’s mechanical, joyless algorithms? Our reluctant hero finds himself in all kinds of situations that are not cool, including in the first episode in which it’s possible that another jazz saxophonist, John Coltrane’s deep theories on jazz help our brave bovine crack the safest safe in the world. But that’s a cow tail for another time.
For now, check out Jazz Cow and find out how you can back the Kickstarter when it, erm, kicks off.
While you wait for the Kickstarter, here's a version of Unsquare Dance. Try watching it and resist clapping along. Bet you can’t.
And here’s Now You Has Jazz. This is not the slick technicolour version from the movie, High Society, in which they are clearly not playing their instruments. Here’s Satchmo himself performing it live without Bing Crosby on The Ed Sullivan Show in March 1961, just as the race riots are starting to escalate across the US. Amazing: