10:21 p.m. - 2009-04-06
Grievance/Book
Occasionally I find myself walking along the bicycle path near our house. I avoid this on warm days and during rush hour when there's bound to be lots of bikes to avoid. On days like today, when it was windy and in the forties, one can walk easily, confident of remaining relatively unmolested by bike people, dog-walkers, joggers, adolescent toughs and other various menaces. When the odd bicyclist breezes by, bike path decorum mandates that (assuming you're walking in the right-hand lane) they pass you on the left and announce this just previous to their passing, sometimes with a fairy-like bell or buffoonish claxton horn but more often with the declaration "ON YOUR LEFT!". All well and good. This is basic communication among citizens meant to preserve safety and ensure the smooth functioning of civil society.
The problem is, I hear "ON YOUR LEFT!" and I think, "All RIGHT! Now we're gonna see something!" and I invariably turn to look and see...someone on a bike, passing on the left. It's not that the person on the bike made a promise and failed to deliver. The bike person is just announcing an intent to pass you and at the same time avoid your being startled. But still. I always feel disappointed. When they make the announcement, there always seems to be something of the circus ringleader in their tone, like what's implied is "HEY, you wanna see a bunch of elephants juggling flaming Volkswagons while walking a tightrope? ON YOUR LEFT!" But instead of the implied pyro-acrobatic mastadons, you just see someone going by on their bike. Which I guess is okay. After all, only about three-fourths of Earth's human population and four-fifths of its monkey population have mastered two wheeled locomotion, so it's not like just anyone can do it. But couldn't the biker try a LITTLE harder, after creating all that hype? If I'm being subtly coerced into looking to my left, is it too much to ask to perform maybe a small wheelie? Or maybe to at least have some playing cards attached near the wheels so they catch in the moving spokes and make a cool sound? I'm not asking for a whole big Cecil B DeMille affair, just a little bit more effort. Okay, bike people?
Thanks.
BOOK ROUNDUP:
For my birthday, Miss Kia got me the recently published history of the AACM, "A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music" by George Lewis. It's a massive and seemingly exhaustive effort. There are tons of notes and bibliography, and writing that alternates between the rigorously academic, the polemical and the personal, the last through extensive interviews with AACM members from Muhal Richard Abrams and the other original members on down, as well as Lewis' own reminiscences. Although certain passages can be a slog, it's a remarkable (and remarkably contextualized) account of idealistic, often visionary music-making occurring within a framework of community involvement that was possibly unique to the time and place that produced the original AACMers.
My one big complaint is that Lewis chose not to devote any space to analysis of the work of his colleagues. Since he knew so much of their work so intimately (not to mention his own), analytical writing on their music would surely have proven illuminating and invaluable. However, given the wide variety of musical expression the AACM encompasses, it's understandable that one would choose to forego strictly musical analysis in favor of getting the facts down.
The best parts, as you would expect, are culled from the various musicians' accounts. From these, we learn that:
*Almost all of the original, first wave AACM members did time in the Army. During his service, the late Lester Bowie was given a choice between being in the bugle corps and the military police. He chose the military police, because it afforded the opportunity to beat up on crackers with impunity.
*Anthony Braxton (along with (the late) Leroy Jenkins and Leo Smith) was the first AACMer to come up with the idea of moving to Paris in search of work and international acclaim in the late sixties, before the AACM was widely known outside of Chicago. Members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago learned of Braxton's plans and within five minutes were on their way overseas, beating Braxton to Paris. Braxton was, by all accounts, peeved.
*The author, during a period when he was taking time off from Yale and playing with the Muhal Richard Abrams Big Band, also worked at the Illinois Slag and Ballast Company. This strikes me as extremely badass, because how many Yale students take time off and work jobs, never mind jobs at companies with "slag" in the name?
*Muhal Richard Abrams appeared in a scene in the film Medium Cool, along with a couple other musician/arts types and the guy who played the dentist on the first Bob Newhart show. The director, Haskell Wexler, had no idea who Abrams was and knew him only as one of several "real black militants" in the film.
*The one white guy in the Association from the earliest days was voted out by other members. He was a vibes player. Vibes players are the woebegone misfits of the music world.
*Plus, much more.
NEXT: Look for a new installment of The Big Time Eludes Yid Vicious Yet Again!! Soon!!
