RonPrice
Member
PASSPORT TO A LUMINOUS FUTURE
While the Baha’i Faith was evolving, according to Horace Holley in a letter he wrote in 1944, from a small, informal network of groups "to a national unit of a global society"(1) the jazz age began to flourish. The greatest bands, both black and white, and the greatest musicians arrived on the scene in the 1920s: Benny Goodman, Jean Goldket, Louis Armstrong, Bix Biderbeck, Bessie Smith, Paul Whiteman, Duke Ellington were all part of an age that put pleasure before everything. They introduced society to a world of new sounds and a new spirit. It was also the age, the period of time, when Shoghi Effendi began to build the Administrative Order, an order which had been established in theory in the writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha. It was an age of swing, of radio and segregation. -Ron Price with thanks to Loni Bramson-Lerche," Some Aspects of the Development of the Baha’i Administrative Order in America: 1922-1936," Studies in Baha'i and Baha’i History, Vol.1, Kalimat Press, 1982, pp.255-257; and "Jazz: Our Language," ABC TV 9:30-10:30 pm, 13 December 2001.
By the time The Duke was playing
Jungle Music at the Cotton Club,
Benny Goodman was feeding his family
with his clarinet and Louis Armstrong
was developing the swing,
a modern-time music of improvisation……
At the same time
Shoghi Effendi was spearheading
a loosely connected movement
into a fully organized one
through the mechanism
of the Assembly, a word,
that had finally arrived in the lexicon
and a tool of the Covenant.1
When jazz finally went live
on CBS Radio in 1927
with Duke Ellington
at the Cotton Club,
the epithets ‘modern’ and ‘new’
seemed the passport
to a luminous future2
and a new Order was developing
the framework for
international teaching programs
that would take a new Faith
around the world.3
1 This was done by 1925, ibid., p.258. 2 Rob Stout, "Dancing in the Dark," The Weekend Australian, February 10th, 2001. 3 1937
Ron Price
14 December 2001
While the Baha’i Faith was evolving, according to Horace Holley in a letter he wrote in 1944, from a small, informal network of groups "to a national unit of a global society"(1) the jazz age began to flourish. The greatest bands, both black and white, and the greatest musicians arrived on the scene in the 1920s: Benny Goodman, Jean Goldket, Louis Armstrong, Bix Biderbeck, Bessie Smith, Paul Whiteman, Duke Ellington were all part of an age that put pleasure before everything. They introduced society to a world of new sounds and a new spirit. It was also the age, the period of time, when Shoghi Effendi began to build the Administrative Order, an order which had been established in theory in the writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha. It was an age of swing, of radio and segregation. -Ron Price with thanks to Loni Bramson-Lerche," Some Aspects of the Development of the Baha’i Administrative Order in America: 1922-1936," Studies in Baha'i and Baha’i History, Vol.1, Kalimat Press, 1982, pp.255-257; and "Jazz: Our Language," ABC TV 9:30-10:30 pm, 13 December 2001.
By the time The Duke was playing
Jungle Music at the Cotton Club,
Benny Goodman was feeding his family
with his clarinet and Louis Armstrong
was developing the swing,
a modern-time music of improvisation……
At the same time
Shoghi Effendi was spearheading
a loosely connected movement
into a fully organized one
through the mechanism
of the Assembly, a word,
that had finally arrived in the lexicon
and a tool of the Covenant.1
When jazz finally went live
on CBS Radio in 1927
with Duke Ellington
at the Cotton Club,
the epithets ‘modern’ and ‘new’
seemed the passport
to a luminous future2
and a new Order was developing
the framework for
international teaching programs
that would take a new Faith
around the world.3
1 This was done by 1925, ibid., p.258. 2 Rob Stout, "Dancing in the Dark," The Weekend Australian, February 10th, 2001. 3 1937
Ron Price
14 December 2001
