AACM....

[LouieB]

Finally a book about the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is being published. After ten years of research and writing, AACM member and trombone player George Lewis has penned what looks like a pretty good book. There is an article about it in The Reader and also one by Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich in The Tribune. This looks like a good one to be sure, both documenting the history of the AACM from someone who was there.

 

Lewis is also going to be in Chicago to discuss the book this week, followed by a performance. I hope I can make this....

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

Thanks for the heads up Lou! I'll have to get my hands on this.

[LouieB]

As usual we are talking to ourselves about this stuff....

 

I am going to try and make the Q&A and performance on Tuesday. Laurie Anderson is also in town for a free Q&A, but it is already booked up.

 

I have a very cool LP of George Lewis doing solo trombone, back from the days when he still lived in Chicago.

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

Lou, here's a question for ya: Lester Bowie, the track "Donald Duck". Does this ring a bell to you? I heard this tune on Tony Batton's late-night program many years ago, and I'm wondering if you'd know the LP it's from. Thanks in advance.

[LouieB]

Not relying on my memory (which ain't so good anymore) but on the internet, the piece "Donald Duck meets Miles Davis" is on the excellent double LP (and I assume CD) All the Magic/The One and Only from 1983 (I retrieved the album for this info.) It has a sort of avant-garde marching band type of vibe. As I recall it was his first major solo album. He put out others, some under the name Brass Fantasy (I have an album titled Twilight Dreams under this title.)

 

Lester was sort of the jokester of the Art Ensemble. He always wore a white lab coat, unlike everyone else who wore African garb and face paint (except Roscoe Mitchell who only wore street clothes.)

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

Not relying on my memory (which ain't so good anymore) but on the internet, the piece "Donald Duck meets Miles Davis" is on the excellent double LP (and I assume CD) All the Magic/The One and Only from 1983 (I retrieved the album for this info.) It has a sort of avant-garde marching band type of vibe. As I recall it was his first major solo album. He put out others, some under the name Brass Fantasy (I have an album titled Twilight Dreams under this title.)

 

Lester was sort of the jokester of the Art Ensemble. He always wore a white lab coat, unlike everyone else who wore African garb and face paint (except Roscoe Mitchell who only wore street clothes.)

 

LouieB

Thanks for the heads up - that might be the one, I'll have to check it out.

 

My dear friend Jack has a framed 8X10 of Bowie in the lab coat. He's the dude responsible for turning me on to much of the AACM stuff, and Rahsaan, etc. I would love for you guys to meet up sometime. Kindred spirits.

[mkush001]

i read quite a bit of good writing on the AACM in this book which is full of great ideas about African American musicians and their art, but nothing as specific as this new book on the AACM. looks really interesting and i'll have to check it out.

[LouieB]

I did attend the discussion and short musical program at the Cultural Center yesterday. It was a total mixed bag. The moderator had a screwy agenda and clearly didn't have all that much interest in the actual music that the AACM makes or in the history of the organization. She was more interested in the structural issues and took a rather didactic tone about all this, including giving long winded intros of George Lewis as well as Douglas Ewart and Nicole Mitchell. All have stellar and interesting backgrounds, but by trying to answer some rather academic questions, all three had little illuminating to say about either their art of the AACM in general. (Sometimes musicians aren't the best interviewees either...) Also she didn't really seem to know that much about the AACM, admitting that she was new to Chicago and the AACM. So there was little talk about the actual book, which made its first public appearance at the show (although I did not stick around to get a copy). Hopefully the book itself is more illuminating than the session was. Of course the eventual questions being asked from the audience turned out to be more statements by people who had been on the scene for many years, rather than questions for the participants.

 

The music was interesting enough, with Lewis working an Apple to loop and manipulate what he was doing on trombone and what Nikki was doing on bass flute, piccolo and what Douglas was doing on bass clarinet and some other homemade inttruments he was playing. Some of it was compelling and other parts of it were just sort of blah. The music part was just about half an hour.

 

I had the good fortune to run into my old music going buddy John there. It was John who turned me on to the AACM (and punk rock) back in the 70s and I rarely see him any more. We reminiced about the old shows we had seen and planned to try and see some other stuff in the future. Both of us talked about the night that Carla Bley brought a large ensemble to Amazingrace, but that Roswell Rudd was unable to make it (a potentional disappointment) so George Lewis sat in on trombone and blew the place away. We also discussed how strange it was that as hot as Lewis was in his younger years, he simply disappeared after getting more interested in computer music and then faded into academia. Also how Ewart was in the same generation as Lewis and how they both played together in various ensembles, but that Ewart seemed to fade away also (he moved somewhere for many years) and is hardly on any recordings. Now Ewart and Mitchell are co-chairs of the current AACM and he has gotten more exposure again. At 40 years old, the AACM has weathered time pretty well, but we both talked about how old everyone has gotten and about those musicians we used to see all the time that are now gone (such as Malachi Favors and Lester Bowie among others...) It is fortunate that a newer generation in the personna of Nikki Mitchell is around and that there is so much cross generational work being done as well as cross geographic (and now cross racial as well) collaborations. (I noticed Jim Baker in the crowd...) Part of what came up in the discussion was that now the ideas that the AACM promligated back in the 60s and 70s have become more accepted and disseminated to other types of musicians. I suppose that is definitely part of its legacy.

 

Also a good book about this type of "new jazz" is Valerie Wilmer's " As Serious As Your Life", which is now a bit old, having been written in 1977 and updated a time or two (mine is from 1980.) However if you want a good overview of 60s new jazz, this is the place to get some good background. Really a fantastic book on the subject.

LouieB

[calvino]

Has anyone read the following:

 

Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz by Howard Mandel

 

In looking into Lewis' new book I came across Mandel's. I have not read it, but the excerpt on Mandel's blog page looks interesting. Especially regarding the term "avant-garde", a topic that was briefly discussed in a previous thread.

 

I have not got a copy of Lewis' book either, my wife who works for the UofC Press, still needs get a copy from the Press.

 

And Louie, if you still haven't made it to the new Velvet Lounge yet, This Friday The Engines (Rempis, Bishop, McBride, Daisy) are playing.

[aricandover]

I've read Miles.

[mountain bed]

Maybe a little off-topic, but since it was mentioned - I've heard my friend Jack rave about Amazing Grace many times. I'm not sure if that's where he saw Lester but I know he caught the original Oregon there, and I believe Shakti as well.

 

Thanks again for the report from yesterday Lou.

[LouieB]

I have not got a copy of Lewis' book either, my wife who works for the UofC Press, still needs get a copy from the Press.

 

And Louie, if you still haven't made it to the new Velvet Lounge yet, This Friday The Engines (Rempis, Bishop, McBride, Daisy) are playing.

Can your wife get copies? I didn't get a copy while there because my friend John neeeded a ride home to Wilmette and there was a crowd trying to get a copy. I do want one and figure I will run by the Seminary Bookstore some day if all else fails.

 

Strangely I have not been to the new Velvet. I just keep going to see all this indie rock and alt.country crap all the time (just kididng of course...). I did walk by it the other day while in the area however. It has certainly become a more eclectic type of venue since relocating, which does speak to the issue of the northsiders becoming more involved with the southside avant scene. I doubt I will make it this Friday but I do intend to go someday soon (of course I have been saying that since it opened..) We are also lucky in this town that the Hideout provides a similar venue for this type of music every Wednesday, another place I don't get to see this type of music often enough.

 

LouieB

[calvino]

Can your wife get copies? I didn't get a copy while there because my friend John neeeded a ride home to Wilmette and there was a crowd trying to get a copy. I do want one and figure I will run by the Seminary Bookstore some day if all else fails.

 

LouieB

 

 

My wife just has to fill out the paper work to get a discounted copy of the book...For some reason filling out the paper work is not as high of a priority for her, but what are you gonna do. Now if it was book about Wilco, the paper work would have been filed, already.

[LouieB]

My wife just has to fill out the paper work to get a discounted copy of the book...For some reason filling out the paper work is not as high of a priority for her, but what are you gonna do. Now if it was book about Wilco, the paper work would have been filed, already.

I guess you just have to ask for it for your birthday or something....of course I the Kot book wasn't published by UofC...maybe some day someone will publish a book about them that isn't rock gossip.

 

LouieB

[LouieB]

Bumping this thread back....

 

I bought this book recently (Amazon has it pretty deeply discounted FYI), I have to say how good it is. I am only a bit into it and at first I was sort of put off by the academic introductions which seem sort of didactic, but once it goes into the background and discusses the stories of some of the musicians and their educations, it is actually quite interesting. I realize this isn't necessarily something everyone here is interested in, but if I do think if you have some interest in the subject matter, it will be worth your time. Check it out.

 

Also I wouldn't mind finding others who are reading it so we can talk about it....

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

I'll be looking into ordering this one. Sounds like I need to.

[LouieB]

I'll be looking into ordering this one. Sounds like I need to.

It is retailing at $35, but on Amazon at $22 I think. Yea, I think you would enjoy it.

 

Edit- Having actually started to get into the meat of this thing, I really highly recommend it. Covering the background of bop to the free jazz of the 60s and the reaction of both the critics and the musicians is material I knew something about, but is none the less handled in a highly intelligent and insightful way. This book is like fine wine or excellent micro or home brew (or other stupid metaphors about inbibing that I won't continue), it needs to be savored slowly and intently. Simply the breadth of George Lewis' research is amazing. I continue to recommend it, even now that I am reading it.

 

Upon completion maybe I will review it for GloNo (if they will print this kind of stuff....which you never know....a book review....how 20th century...)

 

LouieB

[calvino]

I just started reading it also, on page 150 or so. Definitely interesting, to say the least. The actual formation of the AACM, is a great story in itself. It's great that they taped the original meetings, so that Lewis can intertwine the actual minutes of the meeting with the back story of the history of jazz (i.e other Guild's or Associations that formed and failed before the AACM) as well what was going on on the South Side of Chicago.

 

I finally got around and read Royko's Boss, just before I started reading Lewis' book. Royko did not hold any punches regarding the senior Daley's, as well as the citizens of Chicago, treatment and oppression of the South, as well as West, Side.

 

It's clear the founders of the AACM took the it 'us against the rest' mentality; then its members went on to produce some of most incredible music that brought all nationalities and races together to enjoy.

 

I am definitely looking forward to the rest of the book

[LouieB]

I haven't gotten that far yet. Reading about the demise of the music scene on the south side is where I am at. Strange time, the mid-60s and the clubs of the southside disappeared. Now that I go into those neighborhoods more often, the spots he mentions will be on my radar. Lewis is able to integrate the larger musical landscape into forces effecting the local scene. Von Freeman and Fred Anderson get mentioned often in the mix of what was going on in the 50s and 60s. Interesting stuff.

 

LouieB

[PopTodd]

I've read Miles.

 

Yep. Me too.

It was a damn good read... and kinda fun to get the dirt on some of the greats. Mingus sounds like one intimidating Mofo.

[LouieB]

Having made it about halfway through this book I discovered a story that I knew very little about, but would make a great music movie if it were ever made. In the late 1960s there was talk of some of the AACM members going to Europe. In fact it was Anthony Braxton who first talked about this. Apparently members of the Art Ensemble gave him a hard time about leaving Chicago and then they turned around and beat him to the punch by picking up and moving to Paris (this much of the story I knew). Well Braxton was a fairly competitive person and when he realized they had gone, he went too. The book describes how this all went down as well as talking about the types of work they did when they got there and the audiences they encountered.

 

There are many many music stories that have yet to be told and this one could be a great.

 

Meanwhile I highly recommend this book, which gives background on the main players. The only drawback is the somewhat ponderous ciritical overviews which I suppose come with the territory. When I finally get to the end I will write more, just figure I would talk about my obessions as well. (Why leave all the fun to the Dylan freaks.)

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

Wasn't Paris where AB and Chick formed the Circulus band with Holland and Altschul? I have a couple of records by that band and it is some truly far out stuff.

[LouieB]

Wasn't Paris where AB and Chick formed the Circulus band with Holland and Altschul? I have a couple of records by that band and it is some truly far out stuff.

I think it is called the Circle, I think I have those too, but didn't go look at this moment.

 

Actually the period being discussed was a quartet with Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Leo Smith and Steve McCall (who later played drums with Henry Threadgill in Air). You gotta read this stuff, it is pretty fun. You can just imagine Braxton being super pissed at Mitchell et al. There is also an interesting description of Don Moye showing up to sit in and play drums with the AEC without being invited, simply because he wanted to. The first time I ever saw the Art Ensemble was several years after they returned and Braxton opened for them. That was a show of a lifetime as far as I was concern. While I saw the AEC a few other times and saw all the members in various side projects, that one stands out as THE performance I remember. By then it was already the mid 70s or so and all were pretty famous, particularly Braxton who had a contract with Arista and put out all those albums with diagrams instead of titles the different numbers.

 

My last time seeing a major AACM show was at Ravinia in the late 80s I think. Braxton opened for Muhal Richard Abrams I think. So many shows, so few brain cells left....

 

Reading this book I now regret not buying more albums by these folks. Many of them are now out of print.

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

Yeah - one of the records I have is called Circle, the other (actually under Chick's name) is called Circulus. It's a Blue Note reissue.

 

Those Braxton LPs with the calculus-looking titles are pretty good by and large. The Complete '71 (Arista) has a piece that is 4 saxes (very reminiscent of the WSQ) that is one of the best things I've ever heard him do.

 

I will be getting this book as soon as I can get to a bookstore!

[LouieB]

Yeah - one of the records I have is called Circle, the other (actually under Chick's name) is called Circulus. It's a Blue Note reissue.

 

Those Braxton LPs with the calculus-looking titles are pretty good by and large. The Complete '71 (Arista) has a piece that is 4 saxes (very reminiscent of the WSQ) that is one of the best things I've ever heard him do.

 

I will be getting this book as soon as I can get to a bookstore!

Yea, Circle Paris came out in 1972 on ECM. Until you mentioned it I had forgotten Braxton was even on that.

 

Actually Amazon is selling this book fairly cheaply (not one of the dealers.) They may not have it at a bookstore.

 

LouieB