Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:27:34.219Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Area by Area the Machine Unfolds”: The Improvisational Performance Practice of the Art Ensemble of Chicago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2008

PAUL STEINBECK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since their emergence from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the 1960s, the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago have created a distinctive multi-disciplinary performance practice centered on collective improvisation. In this article, I conceptualize Art Ensemble improvisations as networks of group interactions, and I analyze an excerpt from a 1972 Art Ensemble concert recording using a phenomenological perspective informed by my conversations with the group about the performance and by my own experience as an improvised-music practitioner. The analysis focuses on the integration of composed material into the improvisatory process, the functions of stylistic diversity and multi-instrumentalism in Art Ensemble performance practice, and the interactive roles played by Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Malachi Favors, and Don Moye.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 397 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Baker, Paul. “Roscoe Mitchell: The Next Step.” Coda 228 (October–November 1989): 18–21.Google Scholar
Beauchamp Lincoln, T. Jr. Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future. Chicago: Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Co., 1998.Google Scholar
Berliner, Paul. Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Jason. “Declamations on Great Black Music.” Lenox Avenue 3 (1997): 42–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenthal, Bob. “A Kaleidoscope of Sound: Listening to the Big Picture with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” Boston Globe, 13 June 1999.Google Scholar
Borgo, David. Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age. New York: Continuum, 2005.Google Scholar
Bowie, Lester. Interview with Lazaro Vega. Grand Rapids, Mich., 11 September 1998, http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/8835/aec/bowieinterview.html.Google Scholar
Bowie, Lester, and Favors, Malachi. Interview with Ted Panken. New York, 22 November 1994, http://www.jazzhouse.org/nlib/index.php3?read=panken8.Google Scholar
Braxton, Anthony. Tri-Axium Writings. Vol. 1, Writings One. Oakland, Calif.: Synthesis Music, 1985.Google Scholar
Budds Michael, Joe. “The Art Ensemble of Chicago in Context.” Lenox Avenue 3 (1997): 59–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell Gregory, Alan. “‘A Beautiful, Shining Sound Object’: Contextualizing Multi-Instrumentalism in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.” D.M.A. diss., University of Washington, 2006.Google Scholar
Clifton, Thomas. Music as Heard: A Study in Applied Phenomenology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Cone Edward, T. “Analysis Today.” The Musical Quarterly 46/2 (April 1960): 172–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Nicholas. “Making Music Together, or Improvisation and Its Others.” The Source: Challenging Jazz Criticism 1 (2004): 5–25.Google Scholar
Cook, Nicholas. “Prompting Performance: Text, Script, and Analysis in Bryn Harrison's Être-Temps.” Music Theory Online 11/1 (March 2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corbett, John. “Fanfare for a Warrior: Remembering Lester Bowie.” Down Beat, March 2000, 22–27.Google Scholar
Corbett, John. “Roscoe Mitchell's Big Word.” Down Beat, April 1997, 30–33.Google Scholar
Cromwell Arthur, Carrall. “Jazz Mecca: An Ethnographic Study of Chicago's South Side Jazz Community.” Ph.D. diss., Ohio University, 1998.Google Scholar
Figi, J. B. “Art Ensemble of Chicago.” SunDance, November–December 1972: 43–50.Google Scholar
Gordon Allan, M. “The Art Ensemble of Chicago as Performance Art.” Lenox Avenue 3 (1997): 55–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guck Marion, A. “Analysis as Interpretation: Interaction, Intentionality, Invention.” Music Theory Spectrum 28/2 (Autumn 2006): 191–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guck Marion, A.. “Taking Notice: A Response to Kendall Walton.” Journal of Musicology 11/1 (Winter 1993): 45–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, Robert. Interaction, Improvisation, and Interplay in Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huron, David. Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson Travis, Arnell. “Performance and Musical Meaning: Analyzing ‘Jazz’ on the New York Scene.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1998.Google Scholar
Jarman, Joseph. Black Case: Volume I & II, Return from Exile. Chicago: Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Co., 1977.Google Scholar
Jarman, Joseph. Interview with Jonathan Gill. WKCR-FM. New York, 10 August 1984.Google Scholar
Jarman, Joseph. Liner notes to Art Ensemble of Chicago, Urban Bushmen. ECM 1211/12, 1982.Google Scholar
Jarman, Joseph. “New York.” Change 2 (Spring–Summer 1966): 10.Google Scholar
Jost, Ekkehard. Free Jazz. New York: Da Capo Press, [1974] 1994.Google Scholar
Kelley Robin, D. G. “Dig They Freedom: Meditations on History and the Black Avant-Garde.” Lenox Avenue 3 (1997): 13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiroff Matthew, John. “Caseworks as Performed by Cecil Taylor and the Art Ensemble of Chicago: A Musical Analysis and Sociopolitical History.” D.M.A. diss., Cornell University, 1997.Google Scholar
Lewin, David. “Music Theory, Phenomenology, and Modes of Perception.” Music Perception 3/4 (Summer 1986): 327–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis George, E. “Experimental Music in Black and White: The AACM in New York, 1970–1985.” In Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies, ed. O'Meally, Robert G., Edwards, Brent Hayes, and Griffin, Farah Jasmine, 50–101. New York: Columbia University Press, [2001–2] 2004.Google Scholar
Lewis George, E. “Gittin' to Know Y'all: Improvised Music, Interculturalism and the Racial Imagination.” Critical Studies in Improvisation 1/1 (2004): 1–33. http://quasar.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/csieci/article/view/6/14.Google Scholar
Lewis George, E. “Improvised Music after 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives.” Black Music Research Journal 16/1 (Spring 1996): 91–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis George, E. A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis George, E. “Singing Omar's Song: A (Re)Construction of Great Black Music.” Lenox Avenue 4 (1998): 69–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litweiler John, B. “Andrew Hill and Two Others.” Jazz Monthly 152 (October 1967): 28, 30.Google Scholar
Mandel, Howard. “Resurrected Spirit: The Art Ensemble of Chicago Reunites with Joseph Jarman and Pays Tribute to Lester Bowie.” Down Beat, October 2003, 56–61.Google Scholar
Martin, Terry. “The Chicago Avant-Garde.” Jazz Monthly 157 (March 1968): 12–18.Google Scholar
Mattingly, Rick. “Famoudou Don Moye: Drawing on Tradition.” Modern Drummer 5/2 (April 1981): 14–16, 48, 56, 58–59, 76–77.Google Scholar
Meyer Leonard, B. Emotion and Meaning in Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Roscoe. Email communication with the author, 14 January 2007.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Roscoe. Telephone interview with the author. 18 October 2006.Google Scholar
Monson Ingrid, T. Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Moye, Don. “Dougoufana Famoudou (Don) Moye: Sun Percussion.” Résumé, 1978.Google Scholar
Moye, Don. Interview with the author. Chicago, 19 January 2007.Google Scholar
Moye, Don. Liner notes to Art Ensemble of Chicago, Tribute to Lester. ECM 1808, 2003.Google Scholar
Nonken Marilyn, Claire. “An Ecological Approach to Music Perception: Stimulus-Driven Listening and the Complexity Repertoire.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1999.Google Scholar
Pfleiderer, Martin. “Das Art Ensemble of Chicago in Paris, Sommer 1969: Annäherungen an den Improvisationsstil eines Musikerkollektivs.” Jazzforschung 29 (1997): 87–157.Google Scholar
Pike, Alfred. “The Phenomenological Analysis and Description of Musical Experience.” Journal of Research in Music Education 15/4 (Winter 1967): 316–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pike, Alfred. A Phenomenological Analysis of Musical Experience and Other Related Essays. New York: St. John's Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Quinn, Bill. “Caught in the Act: Joseph Jarman, Abraham Lincoln Center, Chicago.” Down Beat, March 1967, 27–28.Google Scholar
Radano Ronald, M. “Jazzin' the Classics: The AACM's Challenge to Mainstream Aesthetics.” Black Music Research Journal 12/1 (Spring 1992): 79–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinholdsson, Peter. Making Music Together: An Interactionist Perspective on Small-Group Performance in Jazz. Stockholm: Uppsala University Library, 1998.Google Scholar
Rout Leslie, B. Jr. “AACM: New Music (!) New Ideas (?)” Journal of Popular Culture 1/2 (Fall 1967): 128–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawyer, R. Keith. “Improvisational Theater: An Ethnotheory of Conversational Practice.” In Creativity in Performance, ed. Sawyer, R. Keith, 171–93. Greenwich, Conn.: Ablex, 1997.Google Scholar
Sawyer, R. Keith. “Introduction.” In Sawyer, Creativity in Performance, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepp, Archie. “A View from the Inside.” Music '66/Down Beat Yearbook, 1966, 39–42, 44.Google Scholar
Solothurnmann, Jürg. “What's Really Happening: Insights and Views of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” Jazz Forum 49 (May 1977): 28–33.Google Scholar
Steinbeck, Paul. “Analyzing the Music of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” Dutch Journal of Music Theory 13/1 (February 2008): 56–68.Google Scholar
Steinbeck, Paul. “Urban Magic: The Art Ensemble of Chicago's Great Black Music.” Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 2008.Google Scholar
Tucker, Bruce. “Narrative, Extramusical Form, and the Metamodernism of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.” Lenox Avenue 3 (1997): 29–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinstein Norman, C. “Steps Toward an Integrative Comprehension of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Music.” Lenox Avenue 3 (1997): 5–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilmer, Valerie. As Serious as Your Life: The Story of the New Jazz. London: Serpent's Tail, 1992.Google Scholar

Discography

[The] Art Ensemble. 1967/68. Nessa NCD-2500, 1993.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. A Jackson in Your House. BYG/Actuel 529302, 1969.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Live at Mandel Hall. Delmark DS-432/433, 1974.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Live in Paris. BYG YX-2041/41, 1980.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Nice Guys. ECM 1126, 1979.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Tape recording, collection of George E. Lewis. New York, 27 July 1977.Google Scholar
Art Ensemble of Chicago. Tutankhamun. Freedom FLP 40122, 1969.Google Scholar

Steinbeck sound file 1

Steinbeck sound file 1

Download Steinbeck sound file 1(Audio)
Audio 2.6 MB

Steinbeck sound file 2

Steinbeck sound file 2

Download Steinbeck sound file 2(Audio)
Audio 2.1 MB

Steinbeck sound file 3

Steinbeck sound file 3

Download Steinbeck sound file 3(Audio)
Audio 789.2 KB

Steinbeck sound file 4

Steinbeck sound file 4

Download Steinbeck sound file 4(Audio)
Audio 1.4 MB

Steinbeck sound file 5

Steinbeck sound file 5

Download Steinbeck sound file 5(Audio)
Audio 3.8 MB

Steinbeck sound file 6

Steinbeck sound file 6

Download Steinbeck sound file 6(Audio)
Audio 864.5 KB

Steinbeck sound file 7

Steinbeck sound file 7

Download Steinbeck sound file 7(Audio)
Audio 1.3 MB

Steinbeck sound file 8

Steinbeck sound file 8

Download Steinbeck sound file 8(Audio)
Audio 787.6 KB

Steinbeck sound file 9

Steinbeck sound file 9

Download Steinbeck sound file 9(Audio)
Audio 542.6 KB

Steinbeck sound file 10

Steinbeck sound file 10

Download Steinbeck sound file 10(Audio)
Audio 2 MB

Steinbeck sound file 11

Steinbeck sound file 11

Download Steinbeck sound file 11(Audio)
Audio 903.7 KB

Steinbeck sound file 12

Steinbeck sound file 12

Download Steinbeck sound file 12(Audio)
Audio 3.3 MB

Steinbeck sound file 13

Steinbeck sound file 13

Download Steinbeck sound file 13(Audio)
Audio 2.8 MB

Steinbeck sound file 14

Steinbeck sound file 14

Download Steinbeck sound file 14(Audio)
Audio 1.6 MB

Steinbeck sound file 15

Steinbeck sound file 15

Download Steinbeck sound file 15(Audio)
Audio 1.3 MB

Steinbeck sound file 16

Steinbeck sound file 16

Download Steinbeck sound file 16(Audio)
Audio 2.4 MB

Steinbeck sound file 17

Steinbeck sound file 17

Download Steinbeck sound file 17(Audio)
Audio 2.4 MB