Quaoar - the Jazz planet

Quaoar Themes relating to Jazz

The following themes, the planetoid Quaoar may have in common with Jazz music:

Individual Creativity

Immediately distinguishable

Performer playing a theme always tries to make it sound not like itself but like himself

Group Creativity (unity in diversity)

Being a co-creator

Inspiration of the moment

Musical experience of a passing moment

Interaction and audience involvement influencing creation

"Newness" as in the 1st time debut of a unique or original composition, "that's a first"

Harmonic Exploration

Growth of melodic vocabulary

Evolution

Improvisation

Inconsistent and Contradictory

Negotiation

Spontaneity

Jazz has no script, but recognizes a governing ideal and is derived out of that

Experiential

The Creative process; Copulation

Mixture

A wide variety of influences or conditions (or those of the right kind) needed to spawn or create the new

In studying the above, we find much resemblance between Quaoar, Jazz music and the 4th ray of Harmony through Conflict as this ray was presented in my earlier article.

I think we see in the Jazz example how Quaoar can work, with its creative processes and experiential attitudes.

The learning is for Man to realize his place and ability (responsibility) as a co-creator in the act of manifesting the higher pattern or ideal.

Astrological examples

Now let us look at some astrological examples involving Quaoar and Jazz musicians:

Zelda Fitzgerald (has Quaoar cjn Asc and Sun/Mercury midpoint):
view chart
American wife of novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Slender, with bobbed hair and short dresses, she was the epitome of the Jazz Age.

The daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court Justice, Fitzgerald was the last of eight children. She was the golden child who later became the Belle of Montgomery as well as the personification of the Jazz Age Flapper. At a country club dance on July 1918, she met and fell in love with novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald and became engaged. In 1919, she broke off the engagement for fear of living in poverty, however they reconciled and married on 4/20/1920. They began a ten-year period of extravagant living, excess socializing and drinking. She was adventurous, spontaneous and fond of off-beat antics, the penultimate party-girl. While married, she had three abortions and on 10/26/1921, their only child, daughter Frances was born. She later married and had four kids; she died of cancer in 1986.

Fitzgerald studied ballet as she did everything, with such intensity that it culminated in her first nervous breakdown, 4/21/1930. At this time she was diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Slipping more and more into dementia from 1925, she began treatment in sanitariums. Voluntarily, she entered a Switzerland hospital on 4/23/1930. After a week, she ran away but was returned against her will on 5/22/1930. After running back home again after a week, she returned voluntarily on 6/5/1930. Between 1936 and 1939 she received treatment in North Carolina. During her lucid periods, she continued to study ballet, wrote and painted.

"Save Me the Waltz" was her first and only novel that was written in 1931 or 1932 and was reprinted in 1953. Her writing skills were keen enough that at times she filled in for F.Scott when he was off-the-wagon and too drunk to finish an assignment.

She died on 3/10/1948 along with eight other women in a hospital fire in Asheville, NC. Upon her death, her husband's grave was dug up and made deeper, so that she could be interred with him.

Louis Armstrong (has Sun conjunct Quaoar):
view chart
American jazz trumpeter, a raspy voiced singer and band leader who was known as the great "Satchmo." With a record of top-ten hits in every decade for half a century, Armstrong is memorable for "Hello, Dolly," and "When The Saints go Marchin' In," as well as his classics, "Weather Bird" and "What a Wonderful World."
Armstrong grew up poor and among prostitutes and lowlifes in New Orleans, rising from a rough and tumble childhood to become one of the first black men in America who had the courage and clout to say, "I wouldn't play no place I couldn't stay." At age 21, he was the talk of South Side Chicago, playing in his mentor's, King Oliver, Creole Jazz Band. So popular were the trademark two-cornet breaks he and Oliver worked out, that they would perform with handkerchiefs over their hands to hide their fingering from imitators. At age 41, his records and movie appearances had made him world famous.

Somehow, Armstrong stayed down to earth, never moving any further into drugs than his daily hits of marijuana, which never seemed to hurt his playing. He was, however, known as a world-class eccentric, his own man, brash and irreverent. His talents as a virtuoso trumpet player and irrepressible stage personality were inseparable, as was his mugging, teeth baring and eye-rolling.

An unabashed sensualist, Armstrong married four times, loved pretty women and ate rich food.

Died on 7/06/1971. The Queen's College Louis Armstrong Archive, in Flushing, NY, has some 5,000 photographs, 84 scrapbooks and 350 pages of autobiographical writings, as well as 650 reels of audiotape.

Art Pepper (has Sun conjunct Quaoar):
view chart
American musician playing a jazz alto tenor saxophone. He was the star sax player with Stan Kenton's orchestra in the '40s. His career failed when he went too far into drug abuse but he turned it around and rebuilt his reputation before he died on 6/15/1982, Los Angeles, CA.

Horace Silver (has Sun conjunct Quaoar):
view chart
American musician and composer. Though he played the piano, he was not known for being one of the great instrumentalists; his forte was in arrangements for the quartet format. As an author, he wrote modern jazz books for musicians to play.

Sonny Rawlings (has Sun conjunct Quaoar):
view chart
American musician who played great tenor sax jazz; a heroin addict.

Glenn Miller (has Sun quincunx Quaoar):
view chart
Famous for being the leader of the most popular big band during the Big Band Era, Glenn Miller is the music symbol of a generation.

Born on March 1, 1904, in Clarinda, Iowa, Miller grew up in a solid Midwestern family. During Miller's early years, his family moved frequently to places such as North Platte, Nebraska, and Grant City, Missouri. While in Grant City, Miller milked cows to earn money to buy a trombone. After graduating from high school, Miller attended classes for two years at the University of Colorado. It was in college, that his interest in music flourished. He continued to play the trombone and also worked with Boyd Senter's band in Denver. At that point, Miller's love for music took over. He left the university and went to the west coast to try his luck as a musician.

Miller played for several small bands until he joined Ben Pollack's orchestra in 1927. When Pollack's orchestra moved to New York, Miller left the band to pursue the many opportunities that the city offered including freelancing for other artists such as Red Nichols, Smith Ballew, and the Dorsey Brothers.

In 1934, Miller helped Ray Noble start an orchestra, which soon became popular through its radio broadcasts. By 1937, Miller's own popularity among big band circles enabled him to form an orchestra of his own, which eventually disbanded. In 1938, Miller put together a second band. Although he struggled through the first two years, Miller's imagination, strong will, and determination kept The Glenn Miller Orchestra and their aspirations alive. In March 1939, the band had its first important engagement to play at the famous Glen Island Casino in a New York suburb. A second engagement at Meadowbrook in New Jersey soon followed. By mid-summer, the orchestra had achieved great popularity and demand through their radio broadcasts from both engagements. Some of the orchestra's classics include "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "String of Pearls," and "Moonlight Serenade." The band was featured in two films, Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

In October 1942, Miller disbanded his orchestra and joined the US Army Air Force with the rank of captain and assembled a quality dance band to perform for the troops. When the troops moved to England, Miller's band followed. On December 14, 1944, Miller got on a plane to Paris. The plane never arrived. It crashed somewhere over the English Channel. Miller's death was mourned by music lovers all over the world, and he was heralded as a hero worldwide. The movie The Glenn Miller Story, starring Jimmy Stewart, was filmed in 1953 as a tribute to Miller.

Miller's band was one of the most popular and best-known dance bands of the Swing Era. His music, a careful mixture of swing, jazz, and improvisation, gained the admiration and praise of audiences and critics alike. Glenn Miller and his orchestra's magnificent music will be always remembered by those who enjoy the beautiful sounds they produced.

Sting (has Sun conjunct Quaoar):
view chart
British musician, a singer, guitarist, keyboardist, band leader, record producer and songwriter, one of the most charismatic rock stars of the '80s. He had a job playing on the Princess cruises at 17, and cut his musical teeth playing with a plethora of various bands from the time he was 19. He was nicknamed Sting because of the yellow and black jersey that he wore, reminiscent of a bee. As lead vocalist and bass player with "The Police," he signed his first publishing deal with Virgin records in January 1977. For several years, he acted in TV commercials, gradually getting small film roles in London. On 5/19/1981, he was named Songwriter of the Year. By 1994 he was winning awards as a performer, and appeared in the film "Dune." Sting was named Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the Grammy's, 2/24/2000.

Sting was the first of four kids born to a milkman and a hairdresser. His dad progressed to manager of the dairy, and then owner. After a decade or more of marriage, their lot was quite comfortable. His mom gave him piano lessons and he taught himself guitar. When he was 14, he discovered jazz, which became and stayed his first love.

In September 1982 he separated from his wife, actress Frances Tomelty. In 8/1990, Sting had a baby girl, Eliot Pauline Sumner, with live-in love, actress Trudie Styler. The baby weighed six pounds, five ounces and was born near Pisa, Italy.

Sources

1. The Red Hot Jazz Archive; http://www.redhotjazz.com/

2. A Passion for Jazz; http://www.apassion4jazz.net/

3. Birth data and biographies extracted from AstroDatabank

Back