Microgroove

John Corbett is a music critic, record producer, and curator. He is the author of Extended Play: Sounding Off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein, also published by Duke University Press. His writing has appeared in Downbeat, The Wire, the Chicago Reader, and numerous other publications.  He is the co-owner of Corbett vs. Dempsey, an art gallery in Chicago.

Preface: Tympanum of the Other Frog  xv

Acknowledgments  xix

Introduction  1

One. On The Road, Into The Cul-De-Sac

Joe Harriott and Bernie McGann: Flying without Ornette  15

Michael Hurley: Jocko's Lament  21

Mayo Thompson: Genre of One  33

John Stevens: Unpopular Populists  36

Peter Brötzmann Tentet: Freeways  40

Steve Lacy: Sojourner Saxophone  49

David Grubbs: Postcards from the Edge  57

Voice Crack: From Nothing to Everything  67

Two. Exigeneses Of Creative Music

Milford Graves: Pulseology  71

Out of Nowhere: Deleuze, Gräwe, Cadence  79

Carla Bley and Steve Swallow: Feeding Quarters to the Nonstop Mental Jukebox  85

Misha Mengelberg: No Simple Calculations for Life  93

Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink: Natural Inbuilt Contrapuncto  109

Form Follows Faction? Ethnicity and Creative Music  116

Anthony Braxton: Ism vs. Is  123

Anthony Braxton: Bildungsmusik—Thoughts on Composition 171  129

Paul Lowens: Lo Our Lo  132

Clark Coolidge: The Improvised Line  136

Nathaniel Mackey: Steep Incumbencies  142

Sun Ra: From the Windy City to the Omniverse—Chicago Life as a Street Priest of D.I.Y. Jazz  153

Fred Anderson: The House That Fred Built  162

Three. Ululations And Other Vocal Stimulants

Sun Ra: Queer Voice  169

Jaap Blonk: Uncommon Tongue  170

PJ Harvey: Mother's Tongue  179

Aural Sex: The Female Orgasm in Popular Sound (coauthored with Terri Kapsalis)  182

Liz Phair and Lou Barlow: On Music, Sex, TV, and Beyond  194

Liz Phair and Kim Gordon: Exile in Galville?  205

Koko Taylor: The Blue Queen Cooks  212

Brion Gysin and Steve Lacy: Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permuted  217

Four. The Horn Section

Ornette Coleman: Doing Is Believing  233

Roscoe Mitchell: Citizen of Sound  244

Fred Anderson and Von Freeman: Tenacity  250

George Lewis: Interactive Imagination  258

Mats Gustafsson: MG at Half-C  264

Ken Vandermark: Six Dispatches from the Memory Bank  270

Ken Vandermark and Joe McPhee: Mutual Admiration Society  278

Peter Brötzmann and Evan Parker: Bring Something to the Table  285

Five. Track Marks

Oncology of the Record Album  297

Discaholic or Vinyl Freak? Mats Gustafsson Interrogates John Corbett  301

Twenty-Seven Enthusiasms: A Spontaneous Listening Session  308

A Very Visual Kind of Music: The Cartoon Soundtrack beyond the Screen  313

R. L. Burnside and Jon Spencer: Fattening Frogs for Snake Drive  322

Before and After Punk: The Comp as Teaching Tool  331

Raymond Scott: Cradle of Electronica  336

Six. Melodic Line and Tone Color

Peter Brötzmann: Graphic Equalizer  343

Albert Oehlen: Bionic Painting  347

Albert Oehlen: Mangy—A Conversation and a Playlist  352

Christopher Wool: Impropositions—Improvisation, Dub Painting  359

Christopher Wool: Into the Woods—Six Meditations on the Interdisciplinary  366

Sun Ra: An Afro-Space-Jazz Imaginary—The Printed Record of El Saturn  371

Seven. The Texture Of Refusal

Helmut Lachenmann: Hellhörig, or the Intricacies of Perceptiveness  379

Guillermo Gregorio: Madi Music  387

Experimental Oriental: New Music and Other Others  391

Afterword: A Concise History of Music  417

Grooving On: Selected Listening  423

Credits  443

Index  447