{"id":90,"date":"2008-05-11T17:05:17","date_gmt":"2008-05-11T21:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/2008\/05\/freddie_hubbard_the_aacm_and_m\/"},"modified":"2011-04-28T16:34:43","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T20:34:43","slug":"freddie_hubbard_the_aacm_and_m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/05\/freddie_hubbard_the_aacm_and_m.html","title":{"rendered":"Freddie Hubbard, the AACM and me in Down Beat"},"content":{"rendered":"

The June issue of Down Beat<\/a> magazine (subtitled “Jazz, Blues & Beyond”) features my cover story about trumpeter Freddie Hubbard<\/a>, who has enjoyed a blazing and extended artistic youth, but at age 70 is now somewhat chastened, struggling with challenges to his chops while eager to reaffirm the legitimacy of his reputation.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n


<\/div>\n
The issue also contains my review of musician and educator George E. Lewis’s epic history of the\u00c2\u00a0AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians — here<\/a> represented by his friend Douglas Ewart’s quintet). I’ve posted my writer’s edition of that report, as it was trimmed just a little for length,\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Also — introducing Matt Miller’s recommendations for music in New York City — comin’ right up<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nHere’s the complete text of my review of A Power Strong Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music<\/a><\/span> as I submitted it — about 150 words too long –\u00c2\u00a0of my thoughts on Lewis’s magisterial and highly readible study of the AACM,\u00c2\u00a0the self-supporting artists’ collective I was fortunate enough to discover during formative listening years.\u00c2\u00a0The June issue of Down Beat includes the article pretty much if not exactly as I composed it, and nuance matters!:\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n<\/p>\n

George Lewis’s
\nepic history of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians sets
\na new standard for scholarly writing about the people who make Great Black
\nMusic, or any other kind. <\/span>A
\nPower Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music <\/i><\/span>(University of Chicago Press),
\ninterweaves interviews with 67 of Lewis’s AACM colleagues, select journalistic
\nreports and theoretical writings with the perspective of a trusted insider
\nacross a societal portrait worthy of Tolstoy. Lewis dramatizes the story of
\nindependent, underfinanced, determined, sophisticated artists from a
\nworking-class minority subculture struggling to launch an esthetic movement
\nthat emphasizes individuality, continuous exploration and personal development
\nin a world that could hardly care less.<\/span><\/p>\n

A self-funded
\nartists’ collective founded in Chicago in 1965, the AACM has gone on to
\nestablish three generations of adherents’ composing, improvising, performing,
\nrecording and teaching throughout North America and Europe (some have reached South America and Japan, too). The AACM’s mission and structure have proved durable, flexible
\nand, best of all, achievable, while proposing that its members’ seek out and
\nemploy any material or approach they choose, as long as the results are
\nexpressly their own.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Lewis tells
\nit, the organization’s guiding dictums issue in large part from the wise council
\nof founding chairman Muhal Richard Abrams, but are also tributes to the group’s
\nad hoc participatory democracy. The AACM has faced some long-running disputes;
\nmany political, practical and personal issues are confronted in this narrative.
\nDe facto policies including the Association’s stance on racial identity and
\nexclusivity, gender equality and musical re-creation vs. all-original works
\nhave been debated, yet just having the discussions has served most AACM members
\nwell. While Abrams, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Leroy
\nJenkins, Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Threadgill, Fred Anderson, Lewis and many
\nothers pursue their distinct, sometimes inter-related careers, they remain
\ntethered to AACM principles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

That the AACM has largely succeeded in raising a platform
\nfor itself the equal today to any experimentalists’ gives the book an upbeat
\nlift. Some of the text’s greater
\npower also accrues from the tales of each member arriving at organizational
\naffiliation. The details of these black Midwesterners meeting on Chicago’s
\nSouth Side, leaving that district’s confines and\/or reinforcing their roots
\nrecall many an immigrant saga.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n<\/p>\n

As a devout
\nAACM member nearly since his professional baptism, an internationally acclaimed
\ntrombonist and computer music innovator, a former music curator of New York’s
\nKitchen Center for avant garde performance and the current director of Columbia
\nUniversity’s Center for Jazz Studies, Lewis has unparalleled experience with
\nthe world he surveys. His evident inclusiveness lends an air of authority and
\nsubstance to streetwise descriptions and lofty analysis, although his focus on
\ntheoretical questions occasionally flirts with impenetrability and distracts
\nfrom more concrete thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance,
\ndespite the breadth of his considerations, Lewis is spare in depicting the
\nmusic itself, and doesn’t relate the pilgrims’ progress to their recorded
\nmanifestations. He seldom notes an AACM influence in nominally
\nnon-“experimental” contexts, though the Paul Butterfield Band, also from
\nChicago’s South Side, expanded its blues and jazz palette considerably when
\ndrummer Philip Wilson, late of the Art Ensemble, joined, and guitarist Pete
\nCosey had a crucial role in Miles Davis’s mid-’70s ensemble. Earth Wind and
\nFire also owes something to the AACM, the same way the AACM owes some
\nacknowledgement to Sun Ra’s precedent, though the organization prefers to
\ndownplay it. Neither does Lewis discuss senior AACM members’ ongoing enlistment
\nas faculty members by educational institutions such as Bard College, Mills
\nCollege, California Institute of the Arts and Wesleyan University.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If Lewis bears
\nany animosities, it’s a subtle grudge that the American jazz press was slow to
\nacknowledge or understand the AACM’s new music (despite the fact that much of
\nit took place outside commonly reviewed commercial venues). He also suggests that the
\nNational Endowment for the Arts imposed inappropriate administrative directives
\nand officers (who go unnamed) in its effort to upgrade and standardize fundees’
\nbusiness practices.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More significant, perhaps, is Lewis’s disinterest in
\naddressing discussing the AACM’s receptivem non-musician listeners. Who have
\nthey been, and what did they want or get from what AACM members created? Lewis
\nis right that the “Eurocentric” wing of the arts elite and U.S. philanthropies
\nhave initially disdained, condescended to, and worse, ignored the AACM — many
\nof them continue to do so. Still, a self-selected audience of devotees attached
\nitself to AACM projects and initiatives, leading to global appreciation and
\nperformance opportunities for many members. To the credit of Lewis’ book,
\nreading about the AACM leaves one wishing to have been a part of it. —\u00c2\u00a0 <\/span>Howard Mandel<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The June issue of Down Beat magazine (subtitled “Jazz, Blues & Beyond”) features my cover story about trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who has enjoyed a blazing and extended artistic youth, but at age 70 is now somewhat chastened, struggling with challenges to his chops while eager to reaffirm the legitimacy of his reputation.\u00c2\u00a0 The issue also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-90","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-1s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/12\/freddie_plays_freddie_talks.html","url_meta":{"origin":90,"position":0},"title":"Freddie plays, Freddie talks","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My NPR appreciation of the late, great Freddie Hubbard -- with Freddie talking about himself, and music examples.\u00a0And for prime mid-period Hubbard hear his out-of-print 1978 album Super Blue, especially the tracks \"Take It To The Ozone\" and \"Theme For Kareem\" (the original unfortunately not available from Amazon as an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Freddie Hubbard\"","block_context":{"text":"Freddie Hubbard","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/tag\/freddie-hubbard"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/12\/celebrating_freddie_hubbard_th.html","url_meta":{"origin":90,"position":1},"title":"Celebrating Freddie Hubbard, the intrepid fox","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard died last night around 2 a.m. in Sherman Oaks Hospital (Los Angeles) of complications following a heart attack he had suffered on the night before Thanksgiving (November 26), not November 30 as previously reported. He was 70 years old.Gifted with powerful technique, abundant melodic imagination, rhythmic drive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/11\/aacm_at_45_creative_musicians.html","url_meta":{"origin":90,"position":2},"title":"AACM at 45: “Creative Musicians” span generations, U.S., globe","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"November 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The AACM -- Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians -- continues after 45 years to encourage highly original, edgy and exciting artists -- as I detail in my new City Arts column.\u00a0Examples in New York City: reedist\/composer\u00a0Henry Threadgill's Zooid performs tonight and tomorrow at Roulette; trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2139,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2016\/12\/jazz-warms-chi-spots-hot-house-alhambra-palace-aacm-promontory.html","url_meta":{"origin":90,"position":3},"title":"Jazz warms Chi spots: Hot House @ Alhambra Palace, AACM @ Promontory","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There are good arguments for building venues just\u00c2\u00a0for jazz.\u00c2\u00a0But speaking of arts communities in general: Most are moveable feasts, fluid, transient, at best inviting to newcomers to the table. It's demonstrable that when jazz players and listeners\u00c2\u00a0alight\u00c2\u00a0at all-purpose spaces such as Chicago's Alhambra Palace, where Hot House produced the trio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/unnamed-12.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2133,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2016\/10\/dr-richard-wang-enabler-of-aacm-experimentalists-rip.html","url_meta":{"origin":90,"position":4},"title":"Dr. Richard Wang, enabler of AACM experimentalists, RIP","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"October 12, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In his first college teaching job at Wilson Junior College during the early 1960s, trumpeter Dick Wang encountered a\u00c2\u00a0cadre of exploratory young Chicago musicians who would soon form the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). He encouraged them. He introduced Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman and Malachi Favors, Anthony\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"imgres-11","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/imgres-11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":143,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/12\/la-based_jazz_consultant_ricky.html","url_meta":{"origin":90,"position":5},"title":"Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard ailing","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"December 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"L.A.-based jazz consultant Ricky Shultz (who directed one of this year's most innovative label rollouts for Resonance Records) writes: \"Freddie Hubbard suffered heart failure last Sunday and is in ICU. One\u00a0of Freddie's past bandmates spoke with his wife yesterday a.m. He is being\u00a0worked on to revive certain organs' function. I'm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}