George Lewis

George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, and Douglas Ewart convened to discuss the AACM and its history, and to play a brief concert. While the backdrop of George Lewis' imminent book release loomed large (and in fact loomed in the lobby, as the University of Chicago Press arrived to hock them post show), it wasn't the explicit topic or focus of the discussion.

The panel was lightly moderated by a student from the Art Institute of Chicago, who worked to put the event together under the auspices of their Masters of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy program. As a result, the ostensible topic was the organizational aspects of the AACM, although the conversation didn't follow very specific topics. Having recently finished George Lewis' book, there wasn't anything particularly revelatory in the panel, although there were several good laughs and moments of clarity from each panel member.

The panel lasted about an hour, and it was followed by a trio performance of about a half an hour. Nicole Mitchell brought the two extreme ends of her flute arsenal, her piccolo and her bass flute, Douglas Ewart played bass clarinet, didgeridoo, and piccolo, and George Lewis played trombone and laptop.

It struck me while listening to George Lewis process both his own instrument and the outputs of the other two musicians on stage that what he is not content with just creating the musical input, he also wants to create the room and acoustic space the music happens in. That is to say that when we play acoustic instruments, the walls and room provide basic acoustic treatments of reverb and space. George Lewis has the ability to augment those basic properties, but also take the acoustic space any other number of places.

It was basically one long improvisation, and to show that the AACM has still got it, there were a number of people who got up and left during the proceedings. Going on 45 years later, they still make many people visibly uncomfortable with their musical explorations.

A very nice event put on at the Cultural Center here in Chicago. I encourage any New Yorkers to check out the New York event happening May 9th that also features a great panel and a fantastic trio.

I will be there and will report back:

Chicago Cultural Center Presents George Lewis

Tuesday, April 15, 4:15 - 5:45pm
Chicago Cultural Center, Cassidy Theater
78 E. Washington Street., Chicago
Free

George Lewis: Composer, Musician and Author of "A Power Stronger Than Itself: A History of the AACM" talks about the rich history of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, an organization founded in Chicago in 1965. He will be joined by Nicole Mitchell and Douglas Ewart, the current leaders of the AACM for the discussion. The three musicians will also perform together. An event co-produced by the Masters of Arts Administration and Policy Department at the School of the Art Institute and the Chicago Cultural Center.

George Lewis, Edwin H. Case Professor of Music at Columbia University. He has taught at UC San Diego, Mills College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Simon Fraser University's Contemporary Arts Summer Institute. He has served as music curator for the Kitchen in New York, and has collaborated in the "Interarts Inquiry" and "Integrative Studies Roundtable" at the Center for Black Music Research (Chicago). A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. An active composer, improvisor, performer and computer/installation artist, Lewis has explored electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated forms.

His artistic work is documented in over 120 recordings and has been awarded by a 2002 MacArthur Fellowship, 1999 Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts, and numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His oral history is archived in Yale University's collection of "Major Figures in American Music," and his published articles on music, experimental video, visual art, and cultural studies have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes.

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 been looking forward to reading George Lewis' book on the AACM ever since I heard it was going to be published. The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has a nice preview of the book up on their site, written by Professor Lewis himself.

To say a thorough investigation of this incredible collective is long overdue would be a massive understatement. John Litweiler has some cursory coverage of the AACM in his book The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958 (the title essentializes the music in a way that Mr. Litweiler is prone to, in my opinion). Lincoln Beauchamp wrote a book about the Art Ensemble of Chicago called "Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future" which contains some fantastic interviews but hardly constitutes a historical examination of even that one important group in the AACM's rich history.

There is no doubt in my mind, nor in anyone else's I am sure, that Lewis' book will be the definitive writing on the AACM and its history. As a member of the association and an incredibly talented scholar I am sure he has left no stone unturned and gained access to untold documents and histories that lie lurking in the private and collective collections of the AACM's members.

One of the promising things about the AACM is that Lewis' work might not always be definitive in terms of the entire history of the organization, precisely because that history continues with each passing day. His meticulous account of the formation will be exciting to read and I'm sure I'll have difficulty putting it down once its released. But the new generation of AACM musicians promises to make certain that there will need to be further revisions and chapters added to their story.

In honor of Mr. Lewis I'm currently spinning Roscoe Mitchell's 1975 (when George Lewis was only 22 if my math is correct) release "Quartet," featuring Roscoe Mitchell, Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Spencer Barefield. It's interesting to compare the opening track Tnoona to the one that appears on the Art Ensemble's Fanfare for Warriors. Obviously the instrumentation is different and the tune has a very different impact on this recording. Not sure if I prefer one or the other, or even if it's necessary to do so.