The Other Side of Nowhere JAZZ, IMPROVISATION, AND COMMUNITIES IN DIALOGUE EDITED BY DANIEL FISCHLIN AND AJAY HEBLE WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS Milan, Causticin Unisersity Pres, Middletown, CF on so iy Press Published by Wes © 2004 by Wesleyan Univer llrightsreserved ates of America Jnted in the United ‘Daracritical Hinge” is reprised from Mackey, Nathaniel Parccrivical Hinge: Eas, Tals, Nose, Reprinted bv permission of The Universi of Wisconsin Press p-Pabliston Dass Ailogue jetted by Daniel Eien and ay ebe = ses Bibi Iso-Rependtio ik pape) — asanco-togsoatg (nOk alk, pope 1. ]ia—Hion ant cricnm, ,(mprorseion (Mac) —Hlseory and uso. 3. Fa-Sosil apes. & lechn. anil, HAs, Ai vont Sons For Martha and Sheila swithous shornIn, New Yor MoCo Hil of Moe, Oxo “Miwic ofthe Common tangruc. Landon: Calder 98°, ion 11" Ponpeeines of New Muse 24. 20. > (0984) ‘Othe well 19. Stockists K Moone Sehaslbens, 1971 Sobornik, Row Rosengard, Minneapolis: Universisy of Miss ir. Neter nad Doss Musicinn-to-Musieiee 1 rant, New Yorks Da Capo. 1 White a Blas, New York: William Mortons 197. Senne Your Lape The Sto of the Neve Jaz=. Loncion: Alison Reprint, London: Serpent's Tal, 1902 ‘ovetn, Michael. “A Lethal Measurement." In joist Cape: a ‘Richard Koselanetr, 261-268, Now York: Pe. Capo i939 ang Gloria D. Gilson. "Reclaim rive sins dhe Soil C OF Ide caf Houcény tet by Craig Calbour. 37-99) the Epistemologica Sin Soria! Eluory ‘ambriige; Back M. Du: vsloping Vaviasivns: Sele and Unsite ve Westera ee Lidge, Belgium: A. Taylor, Walon. Or Anlulya edited by jie, New York: Da crore Lewis 163 GEORGE 5. LEWIS Afterword to “Improvised Music after 1950 95 The Changing Same The editors of the present volume asked me to revisit several issues prompted by the original “Improvised Music fier i950" essay (Chapter 6). ‘This chapter takes a slightly more personal tone in responding questions, while suggesting opportunities for further development that interested persons might take up. To continue where we left off when the article was Hist wrizten in 2995, pan-European identiy polities conti and historical accounts of improvised and experimental music. More ve cent texts dealing with experimental music continue eo eshibit the dismis- sive tendencies regarding African-American experimearal forms identified in the original essay {sce Cameron 1996 and Duckworth 1999).and crities such as David Toop (2c0t) continue to insist shat real freedom in music smeans freedom from zhe overweening influence of jazz, The metods usedl inthese and ocher recent rexts ro erase Affican-Americans from histories of experimental emusic differ nor av all from those deseribed in the original «ss, 80 We need nor review more cases he Even as both uptown and downtown New York musies of the 19808 sought 10 challenge prevailing wisdom in s many areas, the dominant re ‘ponse of white American experimentalism to 2 notion of hybridity in ex perimental forms continues to display fealty to the disapprobation of Affican- American cultural production, while atthe same time appropriating is sounds and methods. Pethaps expressing a vain hope, one downtown associated critic, with a nad to Adornos notion of jazz-as perennial fashion opined in quasi-historical tones that with the advent of Wynton Marsalis, “the britle modernism of the AACM went out of fashion” (Gana, 37). sto phy a major rok journalistic Afterword to “Improvised Susie after 19507 108If similaciy poinred critiques of they seem buried in the avalanche of agiographic encomia produced in 1¢ post-Cage esperimentalisss exist, inations of notions of race ox cass, are in the shortest conecivable supp Perhaps this sin pare Because new music generally appears 10 many of is proponents to beso of and marginalized tha critiques seem, fo owing thet essay, only to “make matters worse?” This dynamic iy strikingly similar to the vonstanc demand for “positive” tack ice Awards and so on, and the concomitant pro scription on si ons 10 this cule are of awell the Ess 1g dirty Jaanéry, Two notable exee Frances Dyson's (4992) analysis of the notion of “letting sounds be them selves” and Jonathan Katz's theorizing of “silence” as a “queer” resistance to-social eunditions of the 1980s (Katz). ‘The forenord to Michael Nyman’s second edition of Experimental Muse (Nyman 1999) gingerly admits chat 2 new. more comprchensive fort co chronicle new musie—which he dubbed “Son of Experimenta Music” (Gaugher2) would have t be tess ethnocentric”: thats less st uated along the “US/UK axis.” Nonetheless, the second edition seems firmly planted along shat very axis. Ukimacey, were he writing the work today, Nyman asters the paradox that he “would not doit any deren ‘vould not be possibte not to doit diterentiy™ (Noman, svi) in he work ( ‘perimental tradition” itself) something of an scale period p A Hard Loot at Race: Coming Soom? The development of « historical notion of “experimental music” that ex ‘cludes the so-called bebop and fee jazz movements, perhaps the most in Alucntial experimentalist musics of the latter part of the twentieth century, could be accounted for in terms of che general absence of discourse in American experimentafism related 0 isues of race and ethnicity, an aspect Cf this music’ inteliecrtal environment that separates it from both post J96s jaze and from contemporary ‘work in Visual art, iteranure, and dance Although experimental music seems to proviel a vast untapped field of en lcavor for cultural studies—especially given its emphasis upon resistance, land upon excavating sithaltern and marginalized histories—ie can fairly be said char at the tine the 1998 essay was first published, few histories had “confronted the connection between experimental music, echniciry, and race in any sustained o serious way. Discussions of race in dhe contemporary imisie community tend 10 fall back oa notions of colorblindness, ranscen imilar to those articulated, not only from dence, ane! universality very GEORGE #. LEWES [164 Dour ako by th for example, fohnson 1979), “Among the tew texts that do confront race it experimen al music, those ‘written oF edited by improvisers stand out, such as Loo Smish's early writ ings (Smith 1973, Smith 1974) and Anthony Braston’s massive three- volume TiivAwinm Writings (986), which dwarf practically all other | composer-produced texts, regardless of presumed genre, nor only in she volume, hur in range of inguity and erenchancy oF larly fascinating aboue these tests are Wo shared assumptions: (1) that 3 | new musical order will necessarily invoive some degree of cross traditions and genres, and (3) most important, that improxisation it [sf provides a key to this kind of mobili. Tis view was shared by Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso. the founders of che C (CMS) in Woodstock. i ve Yook Suet 1900), OMS paces exes | eeodcrwiching cncopt an incade mone exchange arors bord of | imgoge and msec ease: Miya Masets (asco) and Totn Cos i | {2000} have also produced exciting work in this area, as have G Born ane! Davi Hesmondhalgh (2008), “Beyond Category”: So What Else Is New? | |The phenomenon of code-switehing has obliged me to sharpen my | facuson dhe cece (that i since 1970) history of pene transcendence is | iearsee fs eosecitsnad i ion aed cephenehon ped 1 | ‘alreception. Berwe nd 1980, the term *celcenic” sno longer aterm ‘of disapprobation; in fact. genre diversity becomes framed as a transgres: sive cultural and political stance For Jacques Attali it was fre jazz chat originally “eliminated the distine tions berween popular music and learned music broke down the repetitive Iictarchy” (Atal, 140). Later, the first activities of AACM artists in New Tork Ciny, occurring roughly becween 1970 and 2983, played 2 eracial and very public rofe in the emergence during this period of now-standard musi- | ed and critical discourses of genre mobility and musicat hybridity. As AACM trumpeter Lester Bowie asserted, not long alter the dawn of post- modernism, “We're five to express ourselves in any so-called idiom, wo draw ffom any source, ro deny any limiration. We weren't restricted co bebop. fe jazz, Diviciand, theater or poctry. We could puricall together. We could sequence it any way we fet like it. Irwas entirely up o us” (Beauchamp, 46). Tn the ensuing years, 2*Downtowa IP” school, most prominently repre- sented by John Zorn, his associates and spiritual descendants, gradually be- came distince, in a rms of method, aesthetic and cultural reference, from Afterword ta “Improvised Music after 1950 {16sthe preugse. p tensively chronicled by Nyman an Commentary on Dowasown T1 artists routinely celebrates the diversity of ‘ealgurai zeference in their work. In z988 John Rockwell declared that Zon noe only “iranscends categories: better. he's made @ notable ca x them 20 dust” (Rowell 1988). wee oF post-Cage “Downtown I” musicians whose exploits were Viage Voice critic Tom Johnson. nor and grindin ists bave become the heirs to the in this respect Don satholicigy ascribed to Cage Zorn his cats this notion of diversiey with the Beaston and great head, lf, however. con rence on his work, fn discover rt Ensemble. Zorn notices that “the guy°s {Braxton} go connveted up” yn declared that “T want 10 music is beeeer than jazz, Wateous 1989 clstening toall choing tongatancing ACM pr bora al these hierarchies che thar jaz is beter than sock. Tion't Incidentaly or not, Downeown F in press accounts as white, and th tified Downtown Tf 3s som } have been theorized toa far lesser extent chan, gender; Cameron Balley (1990) and Nacive Canadian artist/tweorise Lo- retta Todd (1996) provide tantalizing carly models for further work. in ex: perimental music, the innovations of Sun Ra asserted a kind of interplane- tary Ethiopianism ro envision a borderless fature ‘Ar the same time, reclamations of Ra as the prororypical Alvofacurist musician tend to take the composer's own pronouncements at face valve, while evading questions concerning the polities of the Arkestra (sce Esun 1998), Nonetheless. R courses surrounding computer music, as 9's creation of a nurturing virtual world for his musi- ‘dans constituted an important starting point for the efforts of younger ex perimentalists to confront, in ways that Ra himseif rarely attempred. che expansion of nerworks of sociomusicai practice, and the politic of resources and infrastructure. “Hey Man, I Just Play”: Responding to Conitions Jn comparing post-Bird and post-Cage avstheties of real-time music making, one is eonironted with nwo opposing tropes: (1) she image of the Aftermrd ca “Improvised Music after 1930 * x69pproviser: imprisoned by his own ending artist who sianply bets diver mystic who is unable reroie, imysically cgo-dsiven Romant will (3) the deracned, disengoued, ego-tra sorunds be themselves. The nation of the rural wisdom about jazz, and as "Improvised Music afer 9x0" noted, Cage 1nd his followers, a9 with canonical composers of contemporary music Bich as Besio and Stockhassen, often deployed shis rope in describing ime provisation. Moreover ans have themselves used this trope more offen than niany peopie realize to ward off potentially offensive ques tions about their work: “Hley man, usr pha.” Bu if we disconnect improvisation from notions based in European r0- antici, chen we can recontextualize a lassi pixce ike Alvin the performers ase echolocation 90 & pote a dark resonant space sing a clicking device. Lacier himself com- ‘monly presents the performance procedures for this work as eons antithesis of improvisation, The composer describes one perfor- enced conservatory students used the piece as at certainly out of tune with mance in whieh inexp occasion for insipid jam yom ily est oN ve ofthe or of hes cist of improv isaton ial however bs hased fc in that Romie rope, Tse > . o i¢ creative body, becomes the expressive of fund tritanical rule bases designed 10 police purest, most neverly human form of improvisat ‘as human births vithout. bar realy becomes @ cultural and even asp cual prac discipline senza nav posed trom evoked stom within. ‘Einally, the real point of both my original essay and this revising wasto nose the thesis thar the teadition of American experimentalism in musicis 2 ing 2 stark choice: (2) to grow up and assert its character : ‘ery of perspectives, histori, ically bound and ul axa crossroads, fs multicultural and caultietbnic, with a v irions, and methods. or (2) t0 remain ane ‘mately limited tradition thac aporopriates freely, vet furtive, from its pre sumed Orhers. 1 2 Works Cite sj by Brian Mae iy of Minne- ctl ougues. 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"Laster Sage his pny” user Laced Like many of the improviser-composers coming out of Aftican-American «reative traditions in the late pwentieth century, Steve Coleman has been tive in a wide range of cultural and musica! spaces.? While knows within the jazz world asa key member of the M-Base collective,” Coleman has collaborated with musicians in Cuba, Senegel, India, Ghana, and Indone- sia, worked on computer music at IRCAM, and taught through grassroots ‘community residencies as wel as in universities Tin 1996, Coleman took one of his groups, the Mystic Rhythm Society, to Cuba, where they collaborated with AffoCuba de Matanzas, Led since t9s7 by Francisco Zamora Chitino, AtroCuba de Matanzas performs a wide range of folkloric music and dance from the main Afrocuban subeul tures, including Lucumi* (Yoruba), Araré (Dahomey), Abakué and Banta (Congo), as well as secular rumba genres. The two groups of musicians and dancers worked together for wo weeks, performing at the Havana Jazz Festival and recording 2 compact dise In this esay, I focus on this collaboration in order to develop 2 number Improvising in a Different Clave #173