Old School Cool

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
- Albert Camus

If man can be counted on for one thing it is that when his freedom is threatened he will fight until his very existence is extinguished to keep it, as for him an existence without freedom is no existence at all. Yet, however prevalent rebellion may be, it is nothing but the noise of a billion fighting a not so tight, disappointingly predictable match in which fear and disparity best the lot of them. However, rebellion should not be abandoned, but must overtake every soul, for then we will scream at the top of our lungs just daring tyranny and death to come and mess with us. This rebellion is contagious, even if it is as simple as smoking a cigarette.

Photos via r/OldSchoolCool

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"My Audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience." - Cab Calloway

Cab Calloway, 1947

Photographer unknown

Here's a clip from the movie "Stormy Weather" (1943) featuring Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing "Jumpin Jive"

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Rainy day in Times Square, 1945

“The Majesty of Calmness”

From Self Control, Its Kingship and Majesty, 1905

By William George Jordan

Calmness is the rarest quality in human life. It is the poise of a great nature, in harmony with itself and its ideals. It is the moral atmosphere of a life self-reliant and self-controlled. Calmness is singleness of purpose, absolute confidence, and conscious power—ready to be focused in an instant to meet any crisis.The Sphinx is not a true type of calmness—petrifaction is not calmness; it is death, the silencing of all the energies; while no one lives his life more fully, more intensely and more consciously than the man who is calm.

The Fatalist is not calm. He is the coward slave of his environment, hopelessly surrendering to his present condition, recklessly indifferent to his future. He accepts his life as a rudderless ship, drifting on the ocean of time. He has no compass, no chart, no known port to which he is sailing. His self-confessed inferiority to all nature is shown in his existence of constant surrender. It is not—calmness.

The man who is calm has his course in life clearly marked on his chart. His hand is ever on the helm. Storm, fog, night, tempest, danger, hidden reefs— he is ever prepared and ready for them. He is made calm and serene by the realization that in these crises of his voyage he needs a clear mind and a cool head; that he has naught to do but to do each day the best he can by the light he has; that he will never flinch nor falter for a moment; that, though he may have to tack and leave his course for a time, he will never drift, he will get back into the true channel, he will keep ever headed toward his harbor. When he will reach it, how he will reach it matters not to him. He rests in calmness, knowing he has done his best. If his best seem to be overthrown or over-ruled, then he must still bow his head—in calmness. To no man is permitted to know the future of his life, the finality. God commits to man ever only new beginnings, new wisdom, and new days to use to the best of his

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William Stanely Moore - May 1st, 1925

"An opium dealer operating with large quantities of faked opium and cocaine. Also a wharf labourer and associates with water front thieves and drug traders."

De Gracy & Edward Walton - 1920

"The man that does not fear punishment, little regards crime." - Norman MacDonald

Guiseppe Fiori, alias Permontto - August 5th, 1924

"No entry for Fiori/Permontto is found in the NSW Polics Gazette for 1924, although this photo appears in a later photo supplement, in which Fiori is described as a safe breaker."

Mugshots courtesy the Sydney Justice and Police Museum

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"Jazz is a wordless conversation between between musical notes and visual expressions." - Barbara J.

Charles Mingus - Moanin'

NYC 1948-9
Photographer: Herman Leonard