ChicagoHamburg30

ChicagoHamburg30

The Sound of Chicago #1: Great Black Music

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In this first of three episodes about Chicago avant-garde music, Dr. Douglas Cowie and DJ Kara "Slim" Rusch introduce you to the two key organizations that shaped the scene: the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC).

They discuss the history of jazz in Chicago as well as the problem of using the word "jazz" to categorize this unique musical form. They also analyze the 9 purposes of the AACM and highlight the preferred term that the musicians themselves used to describe their music: Great Black Music.

Check out the two albums discussed in this episode on YouTube here:

Bap-Tizum (live at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, 1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CasRSGYX3ds&list=PLyHn3f7-9IUL3EXNjKRrnHsd_JXwnDxRD

Fanfare for the Warriors (studio album, 1973) at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaVAsP0DCzs

The definitive book about the AACM and the AEC is by George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself (U. of Chicago Press, 2007).

Thank you to CIMP for giving us permission to share Anthony Braxton's first track from 8 Compositions (2001).

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About this podcast

The year 2024 marks the 30-year anniversary of the Chicago-Hamburg Sister-City Partnership. Join us in celebrating the special relationship with this 30-episode podcast series about the history, culture, literature, music, and people of Chicago. Guests will include scholars, journalists, writers, musicians, and thinkers who all have a special affection for Chicago, Hamburg, and the transatlantic relationship. We will launch our first episode in January 2024.

The podcast is sponsored by the Amerikazentrum-Hamburg, a non-partisan, not-for-profit institute dedicated to increasing transatlantic understanding and strengthening transatlantic relations. The podcast is produced by Andrew Sola. The hosts are Andrew Sola and Douglas Cowie. Wouter Verhulst of The Soundary composed the theme song. Henning Christiansen designed the logo.

The podcast logo evokes an enduring symbol of Chicago, the Ferris wheel, the first of which was built for the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. The Ferris wheel is also the centerpiece of the Hamburger Dom, Hamburg's carnival, held three times a year in the heart of the city. The stars on the wheel represent the stars on the city flags of Chicago and Hamburg.

by Amerikazentrum-Hamburg and Andrew Sola

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