Books

As if my life hadn't recently been consumed by a fascinating musical tome, here comes a diverse collection of essays compiled by Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid entitled Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture.

How diverse are these essays? Well, contributers include Pierre Boulez, Chuck D, Brian Eno,  Vijay Iyer, Moby, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Saul Williams, and of course Paul Miller himself.  In addition, it comes with a companion audio CD.

This isn't Paul Miller's first foray into the realm of words on paper — his 2004 book and CD Rhythm Science was something of a DJ manifesto, laying out his artistic vision and philosophy.

This volume is more than twice the length of that book, and promises a fascinating array of perspectives on music. The press blurb on the MIT Press page says:

If Rhythm Science was about the flow of things, Sound Unbound is about the remix--how music, art, and literature have blurred the lines between what an artist can do and what a composer can create. In Sound Unbound, Rhythm Science author Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid asks artists to describe their work and compositional strategies in their own words. These are reports from the front lines on the role of sound and digital media in an information-based society. The topics are as diverse as the contributors: composer Steve Reich offers a memoir of his life with technology, from tape loops to video opera; Miller himself considers sampling and civilization; novelist Jonathan Lethem writes about appropriation and plagiarism; science fiction writer Bruce Sterling looks at dead media; Ron Eglash examines racial signifiers in electrical engineering; media activist Naeem Mohaiemen explores the influence of Islam on hip hop; rapper Chuck D contributes "Three Pieces"; musician Brian Eno explores the sound and history of bells; Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno interview composer-conductor Pierre Boulez; and much more. "Press 'play,'" Miller writes, "and this anthology says 'here goes.'"

It is immediately reminiscent of John Zorn's Arcana volume in its focus on giving a voice to the producers of the music, something that I always cherish and pay extra attention to.

If you don't hear from me for a couple of weeks, you know what I'm spending my spare time doing.

Anthony Braxton interview: Part One, Part Two

This next one is new to me, but not new in the just-published sense:

Amina Claudine Myers article/interview by George Lewis

A video preview of an upcoming documentary about Teo Macero

The Listener: "As Oliver Sacks observes the mind through music, his belief in a science of empathy takes on new dimension."

I just finished Oliver Sacks' book Musicophilia: interesting if not as engaging as the other reading I've completed recently on music cognition, most notably in a similar accessible writing style, Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain On Music. Heavy on the case studies, which are fascinating, but a little too light on presenting new or interesting theories and ideas about the cases themselves. If you're interested in all things music cognition, there's a blog that might be of interest to you.

Critical Improv Intensive by David R. Adler: An article about Ajay Heble and the "Improvisation, Community and Social Practice" (ICSP) research project.

Woody Herman opens for Led Zeppelin (05/1969)

There are some upcoming releases in the jazz book world that I thought might interest some Soundslope readers. All of these are not yet on the shelves so the links are to Amazon for informational purposes - feel free to support your local book stores and order through them instead.

A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis

Official release date is November 15th, but it's available for pre-order. Sure to be a page turner, 672 pages of AACM history, by far the most thorough and in depth piece of literature on the organization to date from its resident historian and scholar George Lewis. I'm looking forward to it.

Miles Davis: Miles Smiles, and the Invention of Post Bop by Jeremy Yudkin

This release examines Miles' music of the mid-1960s and the evolution of the "post-bop" style.

Ask Me Now: Conversations on Jazz and Literature edited by Sascha Feinstein

Interviews with Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Haki R. Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Gary Giddins, Dan Morgenstern, Yusef Komunyakaa, Fred Hersch, Hayden Carruth, John Sinclair and others, focusing on the relationship between jazz and literature.

Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians by Wayne Enstice and Janis Stockhouse

A much needed anthology of interviews with the women of jazz, including talks with Jane Ira Bloom, Terri Lynne Carrington, Regina Carter, Marilyn Crispell, and Shirley Horn, amongst others.