Bass Cathedral

Los Angeles, October 1982: Molimo m'Atet, formerly known as The Mystic Horn Society, is preparing to release its new album, Orphic Bend. The members of the jazz ensembleAunt Nancy, Djamilaa, Drennette, Lambert, N., and Penguin - are witness to a strange occurrence: While listening to their test pressing, the moment Aunt Nancy's bass solo begins, they all see a balloon emerge from the vinyl, bearing the mysterious message - I dreamt you were gone.... Through letters N. writes to a figure called Angel of Dust, this ever-mutating story unfolds, leaving no musician or reader untouched.
Bass Cathedral is the fourth book of Mackey's ongoing novel with no beginning or end, From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate. Thought balloons morph into mutestereopric emanations, N. encounters a master mouthpiecemaker; Drennette leaves Penguin dateless as the Mayan Uayeb (the five "nameless" days in the Mayan Calendar); Lambert's kicking it around with Melanie - much is abuzz but something else is happening to the ensemble. The music seems to be living them. N. suffers cowrie shell attacks and they are all stranded on an Orphic Shore. Political forces are at play or has this always been the essence and accident of the music's resilience? And Hotel Didjeridoo must be resurrected, but how?

Nathaniel Mackey is Professor of Literature at the University of California at Santa Cruz.