Happy 45th Birthday, AACM: you don’t look a day over – well, over 45, actually.
That’s not an insult. The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, founded in 1965 here in Chicago, wears its history well. You’d worry if the AACM looked like some contestant on “America’s Top Model” or “The Bachelorette”; that kind of callow youthfulness would hardly suit an organization that has established itself as a worldwide beacon of committed artistic freedom. (And besides, the best music in the AACM mold remains as fresh and invigorating as one could want.)
On the other hand, the AACM has attained a stature and maturity that neatly complement its older (and even middle-aged) founders, members, and lost soldiers. In the first group you’ll find pianist and composer Muhal Richard Abrams (now in New York), pianist Jodie Christian (still playing each month at Katerina’s here in Chicago), and the inventive and influential bandleader Phil Cohran; in the latter, the recently fallen hero Fred Anderson and long-gone giants like trumpeter Lester Bowie, bassist Malachi Favors, drummers Ajaramu and Steve McCall, and saxophonist Light (Henry Huff).
And in the middle are the dozens of contemporary musicians – from the lionized flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell to veteran saxophonist Ari Brown to newer converts like pianist Justin Dillard and vocalist Saalik Ziyad – who embody the AACM slogans “Great Black Music,” “Ancient to the Future,” and “Power Greater Than Itself.” They are part of an ongoing experiment in free jazz and avant-garde sounds that nonetheless connect to the earliest days of the jazz tradition, perhaps best emblematized by the work of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
George Lewis belongs in a category all his own. The trombonist, composer, and academic literally wrote the book on the AACM – the justly lauded history A Power Stronger Than Itself (2008). His return to Chicago tomorrow (Friday) highlights the first of two weekends celebrating the organization’s anniversary, after which a contingent of AACM musicians will travel to Poznan, Poland, to present concerts at the annual “Made In Chicago” Festival (Thanksgiving weekend).
Lewis leads the AACM’s Great Black Music Ensemble in tomorrow’s program, which also features the pioneering European free-jazz pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Professor Arnold Davidson of the University of Chicago’s Philosophy Department. Lewis’s aim is to “explore the relationship between humans and machines, musicians and their instruments, [and] improvisation . . . through both live performance and discussion.” As such, the concert promises to be more than music.
The program, under the umbrella of the university’s ArtSpeaks series, begins at 7:30 PM in Mandel Hall (1131 E. 57th St.) in Hyde Park; the $20 tickets have been reduced to $10 for those calling the box office (773-702-8080) and mentioning the code word “BLAST.”
Saturday afternoon, from noon till 2, the AACM School presents “Family Day” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E. Chicago). From its inception, the AACM has stressed education and community service through music, and this free-admission event will showcase several groups tutored by some of the organization’s most accomplished members. The program includes performances by the AACM Youth Percussion Ensemble led by percussion dynamo Arveeayl Ra; the AACM Creative Youth Ensemble led by Nicole Mitchell; and the AACM Creative Music Institute under the direction of the excellent violinist and composer Renee Baker.
The anniversary series picks up again next Thursday with a much anticipated lecture by saxophone explorer and original AACM member Roscoe Mitchell, who will also perform twice more next weekend. I’ll have details on Mitchell and all the remaining programs next week.
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