Beauty and Desecration

Although he does not write directly about jazz, Roger Scruton considers beauty and desecration in this profound essay in City Journal. Sadly, some jazz fits under the category of desecration, not because it is innovative or path-breaking, but simply because it is ugly for ugliness sake. This, to my experience, is extremely rare, but I must put much of Pharaoh Sanders's playing with John Coltrane (who never played in an ugly fashion), in this category. Sanders more recent playing has abandoned this pointless quest.