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A power stronger than itself : the AACM and American experimental music / George E. Lewis.
| Author/creator | Lewis, George, 1952- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008. |
| Description | xlviii, 676 pages, 44 pages of plates : illustrations (some color), music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Foundations and prehistory -- New music, New York -- The development of the experimental band -- Founding the collective -- First fruits -- The AACM takes off -- Americans in Paris -- The AACM's next wave -- The AACM in New York -- The new regime in Chicago -- Into the third decade -- Transition and reflections. |
| Contents | Preface: the AACM and American experimentalism -- Introduction: an AACM book: origins, antecedents, objectives, methods -- Foundations and prehistory. Coming north: from great migration to great depression ; Early musical experiences ; Improvisation and autodidacticism in 1950s Chicago ; The end of an era -- New music, New York. Cultures of spontaneity: integrationism and the two avant-gardes ; Beyond a bebop boundary: the challenge of new music ; Critical responses: anger, noise, failure -- A far cry from New York: segregation and Chicago music -- The development of the experimental band. Alternative pedagogies of experimental music ; Eyes on the sparrow: the first new Chicagoans -- Founding the collective. Urban decline and the turn of communitarianism ; Born on the kitchen table: conceiving the Association ; Naming ceremony: Black power and Black institutions -- First fruits. The first year: concerts, critics, and issues ; New arrivals and the University of Chicago ; Travel, recording, and intermedia ; Memories of the sun: the AACM and Sun Ra -- The AACM takes off. The Black arts movement in Chicago ; New arrivals and new ideas ; The AACM school ; Performing and self-determination ; Cultural nationalism in postmodern transition -- Americans in Paris. Conceiving the world audience ; Le Nouveau Paris Noir: collectivity, competition, and excitement ; The politics of culture: Black power and May 1968 ; Die Emanzipation: the rise of European free improvisation ; Homecoming -- The AACM's next wave. More from the midwest: the Black artists group ; New elbows on the table: the AACM's second wave ; Ten years after: the Association comes of age -- The AACM in New York. Migration and invasion ; Europe and the lofts ; Beyond a binary: the AACM and the crisis in criticism ; Diversity and its discontents: new American music after the jazz age -- The new regime in Chicago. Generational shifts in the collective ; The two cultures and a new chapter ; Form and funding: philanthropy and Black music in the 1970s ; Strains, swirls, and splits -- Into the third decade. The 1980s: canons and heterophony ; Great Black music: the local and the global ; Leading the third wave: the new women of the AACM -- Transition and reflections. New York in transition ; Chicago in reflection ; J'ai deux amours -- Afterword. The way of the arranger ; The individual ; The book ; Expansion and sacrifice ; Boxing with tradition ; Regrets ; Survival ; Contemplating the post-jazz continuum ; Atmospheres ; Futures -- Appendix A. List of interviews conducted by the author ; Appendix B. Selected AACM recordings. |
| Abstract | Founded in 1965 and still active today, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is an American institution with an international reputation. From its working-class roots on the South Side of Chicago, the AACM went on to forge an extensive legacy of cultural and social experimentation, crossing both musical and racial boundaries. The success of individual members and ensembles such as Muhal Richard Abrams, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Anthony Braxton has been matched by the enormous influence of the collective itself in inspiring a generation of musical experimentalists. George E. Lewis, who joined the collective as a teenager in 1971, establishes the full importance and vitality of the AACM with this communal history, written with a symphonic sweep that draws on a cross-generational chorus of voices and a rich collection of rare images. Faced with shrinking economic opportunities in Chicago and a segregated music industry, the original members of the AACM found inspiration in the civil rights movement's call for change through self-determination and collective action. These musicians pooled their individual strengths in a new organization powerfully committed to a forward-thinking approach to musical creation and performance. Evolving a range of experimental methods, from invented instruments and unusual musical scores to improvisation and the early use of computers, the AACM challenged the borders separating classical music and jazz. Moving from Chicago to New York to Paris, and from founding member Steve McCall's kitchen table to Carnegie Hall, A Power Stronger Than Itself uncovers a vibrant, multicultural universe and brings to light a major piece of the history of avant-garde music and art. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 601-635), discography (pages 519-523), and index. |
| LCCN | 2007044600 |
| ISBN | 9780226476957 (cloth : alk. paper) |
| ISBN | 0226476952 (cloth : alk. paper) |