ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO

Creative (“jazz”) music in the past ten years has developed in a number of distinctly unique directions, with a continuing concomitant interest on the part of the musicians in the extramusical aspects of the music scene, focusing particularly on the economic circumstances which surround the music. Creative musicians these days are concerned not only with the freedom they are able to obtain and reflect through the music itself, but also with the freedom to control their own artistic and economic destinies in what is one of the most vicious “businesses” around.

One of the most important contributions to the creative music scene since the mid-sixties has been the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a Chicago-based collective of black musicians and composers which is dedicated to the principle of self-determination for artists and all people. The program of the AACM includes the, following Statement of purpose: l —To cultivate young musicians and to create music of a high artistic level for the general public through the presentation of programs designed to magnify the importance of Creative Music;