Abstract

The linear progression of time defines the very notion of the «Modern» as a discernible epoch along the continuum of a common understanding of the progression of time. To alter the relationship of the subject to the normative progression of time or, more radically, to alter temporality itself is to fracture the firmament of the Modern as both a discernible epoch and its existence as context for thinking. This paper is to examine avant garde jazz music and its abandonment of the fundamentals of western music, particularly meter, as a foray into the creation of a sonic representation of alternative modes of subjective relation to temporality. This art is further analyzed in relation to the conception of subjectivity provided by Ellison and Du Bois, and regarded as an attempt to create a revolutionary space of radical freedom for the radical «Other».