George Lewis to do book on AACM

[paul secor]

Jason Guthartz writes:

Hank Shteamer in Time Out NY:

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/articles/mu...ctive-conscious

complete transcripts of Shteamer's conversations with Abrams & Lewis

are on his blog:

http://darkforcesswing.blogspot.com/2008/0...-and-lewis.html

Thanks for posting those, Lazaro - especially the complete transcripts. Read those once, but there's too much to digest in one reading. I'll be going back - probably after I read George Lewis' book.

[Lazaro Vega]

Unwrapped mine yesterday.

Suggested AACM Listening from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/arts/02b...amp;oref=slogin

[7/4]

Unwrapped mine yesterday.

Suggested AACM Listening from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/arts/02b...amp;oref=slogin

another thread.

[ATR]

Unwrapped mine yesterday.

Suggested AACM Listening from NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/arts/02b...amp;oref=slogin

another thread.

These were taken from the discography in the book. In the introduction to the book George Lewis admits that the discography is limited, and expresses the hope that someone will compile one that is more comprehensive. Such things already exist on the internet, if you look for them. Significant omissions offhand are the Art Ensemble's Nice Guys on ECM and Roscoe Mitchell's Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin' Shoes on Nessa, as well as all of The Henry Threadgill Sextet(t) recordings. Lewis doesn't say how he decided what to include, but it looks to me like he went through some of the older recordings to list some 'essentials', then to the newer releases that are, theoretically at least, still in print. Pure guesswork on my part. It's also possible that he's not familiar with a lot of the recordings. Lewis tackles a complex and controversial subject in an objective and matter-of-fact way. I think some of the language may be a bit of a turn off, but he goes out of his way to point out that it could have been much more academic than it is. Congratulations, George Lewis. You've written the lyrics to a music that's been going on for over 40 years.

[clifford_thornton]

Hopefully my review of the book at AAJ will be running soon.

My praise and complaints, fwiw, will be visible there.

[Lazaro Vega]

That book from a couple of years ago about Leonard Chess did a good job of bringing to life the scene surrounding Tommy Archia and the tavern musical culture in Chicago. The first chapter in "A Power Stronger Than Itself" with the thoughts of Muhal, Jodie Christian, LeRoy Jones and Malachi Favors woven into the narrative is even more vivid. Lewis's premise that academia represents more powerfully than journalism, if done with a different set of questions going in, is right on. Jargon or not he's taking on presuppositions that have come from journalism and clouded the musical/historical narrative.

The scene they're describing, too, and how the music was learned -- rich.

[AllenLowe]

just got my copy, liking what little I've read, seems like a very level-headed look at a potentially VERY political subject (just as an immediate point of praise, he questions some things that Baraka says - I've always felt that Blues People is riddled with errors, but that's for another thread) - will take some time to read, as it's a big book - gotta admit that I'm not as well versed in AACM recordings as I should be due to my relatively short musical attention span these days; I'm more of a Hemphill/Braxton guy - time to get back into it -

Edited June 7, 2008 by AllenLowe

[clifford_thornton]

That book from a couple of years ago about Leonard Chess did a good job of bringing to life the scene surrounding Tommy Archia and the tavern musical culture in Chicago. The first chapter in "A Power Stronger Than Itself" with the thoughts of Muhal, Jodie Christian, LeRoy Jones and Malachi Favors woven into the narrative is even more vivid. Lewis's premise that academia represents more powerfully than journalism, if done with a different set of questions going in, is right on. Jargon or not he's taking on presuppositions that have come from journalism and clouded the musical/historical narrative.

The scene they're describing, too, and how the music was learned -- rich.

Do you mean Leonard Jones or Leroy Jenkins? In this book, both factor prominently.

[Lazaro Vega]

This notion of the autodidactic and the schooled musician is a very important discussion, too. On the one hand you get all these distinctive, funky sounding instrumentalists (Von Freeman, example, on in New York, Jackie Mac), yet at the same time there's a need to learn from the dance band players who've been through it, who read well and play in sections. The Fate Marable part of Louis Armstrong's journey, if you will. There are stories of Budd Johnson teaching Pres, wasn't it? That evolution, the way the music was passed from generation to generation, and the way the music becomes standardized in jam session formulas because of economics, is an important discussion to have nowadays.

[AllenLowe]

to me the most interesting thiing about all this - and it's something Hemphill and I discussed one day, not long before he died (I went to see him while he was in bad shape, waiting for a transplant that never came) is the relation of performance/composition to experience and community. This relationship is an important and generally inseparable part of African American performance, and something that Lewis seems to be getting at as he distinguishes black and white avant gardists - it is the ability of African American avant gardists to connect with their root communities and experiences even as they express things which many members of the those communities might find difficult to absorb or understand. As my old mentor Richard Gilman said, the best artists are not just repeating the gestures that we've already made but are telling us what we are going to be doing/thinking/saying NEXT, they are just a little bit ahead of our own understanding of our changing consciousness. So that which they give us is not always easy to understand, and defies a conventional idea of art and experience, even as it directly reflects the deepest and truest aspects of that experience - and Julius clearly had a real understanding of this relationship between his own music and his life. It was the most important thing I learned from him and I find it clearly in all that Lewis writes here -

[AllenLowe]

liking the book - I just wish he wouldn't, in that academic way, make up words -

[jimi089]

liking the book - I just wish he wouldn't, in that academic way, make up words -

Why is that? If he finds the existing vocabulary inadequate and can make a good case for new vocabulary, I say go for it. There's some obvious parallels with this issue and the spirit of the music he's discussing. I've found his construct of Afrological versus Eurological systems of music making very useful in my own thought and writing.

[AllenLowe]

because he makes up silly words that don't contribute to any points he's making, simply sound like parodies of academia - it's a perennial problem, IMHO - academics are sometimes afraid to sound too accessible, and yet, Lewis's overall tone is very accessible. These kind of multi-syllabic nonsense words end up sounding like Dr. Seuss - don't have the book with me now, but will pick through tonight to find examples -

[Lazaro Vega]

Henry Threadgill's story about his early life in the gospel music world was wild. "Pulling snakes out of people's mouths." Having to start your playing at the back of the stage and making sure, by the time you walked up front, that you had the audience with you or else.

[Chuck Nessa]

You can't imagine my interest in most of this book. Try to imagine a book about a huge percentage of your life. Some "observations" might be off by a few degrees (my personal deal) but DAMN!

George has done a really interesting job.

Thanks.

[AllenLowe]

exactliessentiallicenctiously -

[Chuck Nessa]

Relax and take your meds.

[AllenLowe]

marvelositous idea -

[AllenLowe]

by the way, before Chuck sends me a letter-bomb, let me say that I am liking the book a great deal -

[AllenLowe]

also, there are nice mentions of not only Chuck but also Larry Kart and Terry Martin -

I think the Chicago critics call this "product placement" -

[Chuck Nessa]

So, you saw my "Ted" post.

[AllenLowe]

what I like the most, so far, is that Lewis is very open and non-ideological.

[Lazaro Vega]

Like Muhal.

When talking about 50's Chicago and the ideas of Black Experimentalism in the bebop era of Chicago two things: Johnny Griffin's "Woody N You" from his sextet album on Prestige which unfolds like a mini-suite, instrumental recombinations occuring as regularly as a Jelly Roll Morton chart; and Ira Sullivan talking about playing on the South Side and saying the musicians there weren't as predisposed to say "This is the right way" but if there were just a drummer and a tenor, they'd hit it.

[Larry Kart]

Like Muhal.

When talking about 50's Chicago and the ideas of Black Experimentalism in the bebop era of Chicago two things: Johnny Griffin's "Woody N You" from his sextet album on Prestige which unfolds like a mini-suite, instrumental recombinations occuring as regularly as a Jelly Roll Morton chart; and Ira Sullivan talking about playing on the South Side and saying the musicians there weren't as predisposed to say "This is the right way" but if there were just a drummer and a tenor, they'd hit it.

That Griffin recording was on Riverside, now OJC; otherwise, very good point. My recollection of Chicago in the bop-unto-hardbop era was that there was lot of "strollin" (piano lays out, or piano and drums lay out, or even the whole rhythm section lays out, for a chorus or two or three), and that this was felt to be bracing/refreshing and more or less peculiar to that scene. Of course, Griffin himself became known for, and was well-suited to, this -- he does it on several (IIRC) tracks from the Monk at the Five Spot recordings -- but I believe there was a lot of this going on in Chicago back then. You could call it "deconstruction," if that term hadn't come to mean what it does in lit-crit circles; in any case there was a sense that component parts could be detached/held up to the light in the process of playing. Roscoe Mitchell no doubt was a direct heir to this impulse.

[Johnny E]

Chuck, is that you in the photo of the huge percussion set up, recording the Roscoe Mitchell piece?

Yes, I'm the lame looking white guy not doing anything.

au contraire! Looks like you're holding the whole thing together!

I agree. Those guys made some of their best recordings for Nessa records. You must have been doing something right Chuck...even if it was just staying out of the way. There is something important to be said about that. That's one of the reasons the Candid recordings are all so great as well.