George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell and Douglas Ewart, 4/15/2008

George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, and Douglas Ewart convened to discuss the AACM and its history, and to play a brief concert. While the backdrop of George Lewis' imminent book release loomed large (and in fact loomed in the lobby, as the University of Chicago Press arrived to hock them post show), it wasn't the explicit topic or focus of the discussion.

The panel was lightly moderated by a student from the Art Institute of Chicago, who worked to put the event together under the auspices of their Masters of Arts in Arts Administration and Policy program. As a result, the ostensible topic was the organizational aspects of the AACM, although the conversation didn't follow very specific topics. Having recently finished George Lewis' book, there wasn't anything particularly revelatory in the panel, although there were several good laughs and moments of clarity from each panel member.

The panel lasted about an hour, and it was followed by a trio performance of about a half an hour. Nicole Mitchell brought the two extreme ends of her flute arsenal, her piccolo and her bass flute, Douglas Ewart played bass clarinet, didgeridoo, and piccolo, and George Lewis played trombone and laptop.

It struck me while listening to George Lewis process both his own instrument and the outputs of the other two musicians on stage that what he is not content with just creating the musical input, he also wants to create the room and acoustic space the music happens in. That is to say that when we play acoustic instruments, the walls and room provide basic acoustic treatments of reverb and space. George Lewis has the ability to augment those basic properties, but also take the acoustic space any other number of places.

It was basically one long improvisation, and to show that the AACM has still got it, there were a number of people who got up and left during the proceedings. Going on 45 years later, they still make many people visibly uncomfortable with their musical explorations.

A very nice event put on at the Cultural Center here in Chicago. I encourage any New Yorkers to check out the New York event happening May 9th that also features a great panel and a fantastic trio.