Book review

George Lewis is many things to many people: a performer, composer, improviser, scholar, and a professor. It would be misguided to overemphasize any one of these areas of experience and expertise in evaluating his newly released book on the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), A Power Stronger Than Itself, as the end result reflects both the careful theoretical critiques and understanding of academic rigor and the unique, invaluable perspective of a performer, musician, and member of the AACM.

The 500+ page tome is not merely a historical account; there is critical analysis of the racial politics of composition, improvisation, and experimentation, the world of grants and foundations in the arts, and the repercussions of increasingly global musical dialogues, all of it interspersed with incredible historical information that only someone with insider access to the AACM could have collected. The book is packed with revelations both theoretical and factual, the former the culmination of years of thought and analysis that come together to present a cogent critique and understanding of the world of improvised, experimental music.

It is instantly amongst the best books I've read on the subject, and is in a league of its own in terms of approaching issues of racial politics in experimental music, an area that has heretofore been tip-toed around more often than it has been discussed head on. In the factual department, the biographical nuggets he offers on many AACM members points to a continued need for these stories to be told, as they are incredibly rich with detail and interest. As a member and peer of the musicians he writes about, Lewis strikes a remarkable balance between rightly celebrating the significant accomplishments of the individual members without veering into hagiography.

In terms of a time line, the book covers the AACM from its earliest origin, following the AACM's progress all the way up through the latest generation of AACM musicians. In the process Lewis dispels the oft perpetuated myth that the AACM is wholly indebted to the mystical collectivism of Sun Ra, an oversimplified attempt at regional linear evolution that doesn't take into account the myriad musical and philosophical influences at work in the early AACM formation. There is some particularly interesting information about the structure of the organization and how it dealt with a migration of members from Chicago to New York, and how we can understand the various waves and generations of AACM musicians. What develops out of this is a picture of an organization that has survived amongst internal disagreements, against social and financial odds, with the recurring theme being a belief in the organization's mission and resilience.

While the accomplishments of A Power Stronger Than Itself are not to be underestimated, the writing points to more work left undone. In the course of his discussions, Lewis points to numerous areas of discussion that deserve further exploration and analysis. It's a landmark study, providing a foundation of critique and inquiry that can and should lead to further discussion and research in the future. We can only hope that George Lewis will continue to publish works of this magnitude, but even if not, he will have left his mark on the study of jazz and improvised music.

My review copy said the release date is in May, and it is available for pre-order at a very reasonable price. Put your orders in now and clear your schedule for reading time, because it's a book that requires close attention. I'll be picking up the finished copy so I can have access to an index and the photographs I'm told will be included in the official release.

I've just finished reading Daniel J. Levitin's book This Is Your Brain On Music, a fascinating foray into the world of music cognition and neurological studies. Levitin has written a book that tackles these subjects in a manner that might appeal to an average reader, rather than burying his thoughts in copious academic language and rhetoric. The result is a book that is highly accessible, but in my opinion lacks depth in some areas that could have been developed further without sacrificing the accessibility. He succeeds in providing an excellent overview of the current state of understanding and research, and he has a knack for providing examples that give the reader practical explanations and applications for his ideas.

The book is organized very well, moving from the basic question of why he would want to combine and mix the fields of science and music to the basics of music for the non-musician reader (a chapter I read but in hindsight could have skipped entirely), moving on to various issues concerning the neurological processing of music.

Some of the ideas that I found most intriguing were those related to the ways music utilizes so much of the neurological structures, engaging the different areas in a way that from my observations points to a unifying effect of music on the brain. His discussions of the possible evolutionary role of music in social bonding and mating advantages were particularly interesting, as he attempted to refute the idea that music was merely "auditory cheesecake" that stimulated our pleasure centers and provided little in the way of evolutionary advantages.

I thought the section on the ways various disorders such as Williams Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorders affect musical enjoyment and processing. Basically, he shows that people with Williams Syndrome have a particular inclination towards music, both as listeners and performers, and they are often quite accomplished as performers. People with autism however report being unmoved emotionally by music, although they are often interested structurally - symptoms that make sense in the scope of autistic people that have trouble reading the emotions of others. The neurological slant comes when Levitin points out that the neocerebellum is larger than normal in people with Williams Syndrome and smaller in than normal in people who have Autism, and that the cerebellum as a whole plays an important role in music cognition.

Levitin has an interesting background, as he was a producer and engineer for many years before entering the world of academia - perhaps this explains his inclination to write a book that is accessible to the general public rather than the niche academic bubble of music cognition specialists. I certainly enjoyed his name dropping and anecdotal stories and quotes from musicians like Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, and Neil Young. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I appreciate his detailed bibliography with personal notes on the books so that I can explore the subject further.