Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM

Paul Steinbeck's Sound Experiments offers a groundbreaking study of the trailblazing music emanating from Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a pivotal force in the world of jazz and experimental sound. Founded on Chicago's South Side in 1965 and still a vibrant entity today, the AACM stands as the most influential collective organisation in its field.

In this in-depth historical and musical investigation, Steinbeck meticulously analyses individual performances and formal innovations with captivating detail. He focuses particularly on the compositions of Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell, the Association's leading lights, alongside Anthony Braxton, George Lewis (and his renowned computer-music experiment, Voyager), Wadada Leo Smith, and Henry Threadgill, as well as more recent AACM members such as Mike Reed, Tomeka Reid, and Nicole Mitchell.

Sound Experiments presents a sonic history spanning six decades, providing profound insight not only into the individuals who crafted this music but also into their astonishing collective aesthetic. This aesthetic was uniquely rooted in fostering communal bonds across generations, coupled with an unwavering commitment to experimentalism. The AACM's compositions shattered the boundaries between jazz and experimental music, making essential contributions to African American expression in a broader sense. Steinbeck expertly demonstrates how the creators of these extraordinary pieces pioneered novel approaches to instrumentation, notation, conducting, musical form, and technology, ultimately forging new and compelling soundscapes within contemporary music.