Black Music Matters
Dear Friends,
I am happy to announce that today is the publication date for my newest book, Black Music Matters: Jazz and the Transformation of Music Studies (Rowman and Littlefield).
BMM is dedicated to my dear friend, former colleague, and jazz innovator extraordinaire Geri Allen, who passed away far too early a little over a year ago.
The book is my seventh (as author, co-author, and co-editor of volumes) in the past eight years and combines my longstanding interests in improvisation, consciousness/spirituality, social activism and educational reform. The book presents what is arguably among the most radical visions in the long history of music studies change deliberations.
Among its key features are a fundamentally new framework for musicology that essentially renders historical and ethnomusicological divisions obsolete, further elucidation (extending from previous work) of an inner cognitive/transpersonal mechanics of the improvisation process, a massive critique of multiculturalism in favor of a transcultural diversity paradigm, and a robust activist stance that takes aim as much at so-called progressive thinking in music studies as the conventional model that has long been under siege (but has scarcely budged).
All to support the book’s primary theses—that A) a carefully designed music studies paradigm grounded in African American practices and aesthetics has the capacity to support a range of navigation, including deep penetration into European classical music and far-reaching global excursions, that exceeds what is typically even imagined from conventional (monocultural and even multicultural) standpoints; and B) this in turn could catalyze broader revolution in creativity and consciousness in overall education and society at large. I appropriate principles of an emergent consciousness-based worldview called Integral Theory (this and my 2013 book are the first two to apply IT to music) in my analysis of the latter development.
Might it be high time to position what Martin Luther King, Jr in 1964 described as “triumphant music” whose reaches extend across the globe and in 1997 the US House of Representative declared a “national treasure” in its rightful place of centrality in American music schools?
I will soon be announcing a wave of new initiatives that build upon this work, as well as some new music!
All best to everyone as the summer winds down.
Ed Sarath
PS. As typically the case, the book is available in hard cover and e-format for the next year or so, which means $80 price tag, then with paperback to follow at much reduced cost after that time. But it should be available soon in most music libraries and general university libraries.
Black Music Matters
Dear Friends,
I am happy to announce that today is the publication date for my newest book, Black Music Matters: Jazz and the Transformation of Music Studies (Rowman and Littlefield).
BMM is dedicated to my dear friend, former colleague, and jazz innovator extraordinaire Geri Allen, who passed away far too early a little over a year ago.
The book is my seventh (as author, co-author, and co-editor of volumes) in the past eight years and combines my longstanding interests in improvisation, consciousness/spirituality, social activism and educational reform. The book presents what is arguably among the most radical visions in the long history of music studies change deliberations.
Among its key features are a fundamentally new framework for musicology that essentially renders historical and ethnomusicological divisions obsolete, further elucidation (extending from previous work) of an inner cognitive/transpersonal mechanics of the improvisation process, a massive critique of multiculturalism in favor of a transcultural diversity paradigm, and a robust activist stance that takes aim as much at so-called progressive thinking in music studies as the conventional model that has long been under siege (but has scarcely budged).
All to support the book’s primary theses—that A) a carefully designed music studies paradigm grounded in African American practices and aesthetics has the capacity to support a range of navigation, including deep penetration into European classical music and far-reaching global excursions, that exceeds what is typically even imagined from conventional (monocultural and even multicultural) standpoints; and B) this in turn could catalyze broader revolution in creativity and consciousness in overall education and society at large. I appropriate principles of an emergent consciousness-based worldview called Integral Theory (this and my 2013 book are the first two to apply IT to music) in my analysis of the latter development.
Might it be high time to position what Martin Luther King, Jr in 1964 described as “triumphant music” whose reaches extend across the globe and in 1997 the US House of Representative declared a “national treasure” in its rightful place of centrality in American music schools?
I will soon be announcing a wave of new initiatives that build upon this work, as well as some new music!
All best to everyone as the summer winds down.
Ed Sarath
PS. As typically the case, the book is available in hard cover and e-format for the next year or so, which means $80 price tag, then with paperback to follow at much reduced cost after that time. But it should be available soon in most music libraries and general university libraries.
Ed Sarath, founder
Welcome to Improvisation, Consciousness and Cosmos!
If humanity is to navigate this extraordinary juncture in the history of the world, unprecedented penetration to the innermost dimensions of human evolutionary potential—including creative, spiritual, intellectual, physical, relational and other dimensions—and corresponding transformation in thinking, action and imagining will be essential to this task. While I fully realize that assessment of this sort is nothing new, I believe that Improvisation, Consciousness and Cosmos brings several important new principles to the conversation.
First pertains to the importance of the arts, and particularly improvised musical art as template for improvisatory creativity across fields, to both ontological and epistemological dimensions of the broader transformation. The arts also have powerful capacities to transcend ideological and cultural divides and unite and inspire individuals from wide-ranging backgrounds in a celebration of the oneness of humanity and all of creation.
This can be thought of in terms of a continuum that begins with creativity as a neutral point of departure and then fathoms deeper dimensions of potential unification and change. In short: Any substantive inquiry into creativity inevitably opens up to improvisation, which in turn opens up to consciousness as the source from which improvisatory and other kinds of creativity flow. From consciousness, inquiry opens up to the soul level from which creative improvisers draw and at which they unite in peak, transformative moments. From soul, the domain of spirit—as both individual and universal in nature—enters into the picture.
At once, then, creativity opens up to connecting terrain that is transcendent of cultural boundaries as well as spiritual-denominational boundaries, thus inviting participants from all orientations, including from highly polarized constituencies, to join together in unifying ground. Here it is where ICC’s grounding in an integral worldview—in which consciousness, or spirit, is primary—represents a powerful platform for common ground that, when apprehended through the lens of the arts, also accommodates infinite culturally-mediated richness. While this does not ensure divisions will be immediately healed, it represents a powerful backdrop for initial steps in this direction.
And even if individuals who lean toward materialist assumptions about the nature of consciousness and reality may not resonate with the integral principles that underlie the ICC vision, it is important to recognize that the materialist constituency comprises a distinctly small portion of the population, even if its voice has predominated the academic world. Moreover, I am inclined to think that some materialists may even reconsider that ideology when it is situated within the improvisatory arts-driven context of ICC and the perspectives on consciousness and spirituality that it brings into focus.
Which leads to a second area in which ICC may make unique contributions, involving the importance of the educational world to the broader transformation. If the overarching change is to take place in society, it will need to take hold in the academic sector, even if—given the aversion in the academy to creativity and spirituality—this is no small task.
Here is where constituent ICC organizations and initiatives work together as catalysts for educational reform from three distinctly different, yet intersecting angles, yet also bridge educational world and society.
Constituent ICC organizations and initiatives
International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM)
ISIM begins its second decade of festival/conferences and initiatives around the world that promote the awareness of improvisation as a central to musical creativity and a spiritual vision (that transcends yet includes and deepens denomination-specific religious/spiritual lineages)
Alliance for the Transformation of Musical Academe (ATMA)
ATMA promotes an entirely new vision for music studies and the central identity of the 21st century musician, music teacher and scholar. Reflecting a shift from the monocultural orientation of conventional music studies, in which European classical music occupies the core, and multicultural efforts to embellish that core, ATMA advocates a transcultural vision in which the creative and spiritual foundations of African American music assume a central place as a source of powerful tools for global navigation (including unprecedented vitality of engagement with European classical music). ATMA also brings a robust activist thrust to music studies change visioning, with advocacy for black music in music studies situated within the highly charged backdrop of black-white racial dynamics that is increasingly prominent in our nation and world. ATMA additionally seeks to illuminate the contributions that improvisation-based music studies paradigm for environmental crises, a spirituality that transcends denominational boundaries, and peace.
Consortium for Consciousness Studies in Higher Education (CCSHE)
CCSHE seeks to help guide the establishment of consciousness studies as a foundational area of study in the 21st century academy. Viewing itself at the intersection of burgeoning consciousness studies and contemplative studies movements, CCSHE strives to take this work further through the following angles:
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- Advocacy of grounding meditation and related practice in robust theoretical accounts of the nature of consciousness, its development, and the relationship of individual consciousness to the cosmic wholeness in order to usher in a new, integral worldview for humanity.
- Shifts the onus when it comes to defining consciousness from neutral, if not privileged status of materialist viewpoints to the centering of a nondual, integral worldview. Consciousness is not a byproduct of the physical, it is primary in the cosmic order. This is not to categorically rule out materialist arguments, but to alter the backdrop against which such arguments are made.
- Recognition of the arts, and particularly improvised musical art as not only powerful vehicles for heightened consciousness, but also important sources of ontological insight in the quest to understand consciousness. To reiterate a key ICC precept; human beings are co-evolutionary participants in the improvisatory cosmic unfolding.
- To use the improvisation/arts-inspired, nondual understanding of consciousness as a format to sustain a conversation about contemporary spirituality of unprecedented scope and inclusivity. Aiming to transcend denominational, ideological and political divisions, this conversation will engage individuals from contemplative lineages, indigenous traditions, religious faith traditions, adherents to a spiritual-but-not-religious identity, and beyond to celebrate common ground, critically interrogate points of difference, and above all recognize that the primacy of spirit is where humanity and all life most profoundly unites and is the basis for navigating the present juncture in the history of the world.
- Recognize the growing volume of research into the physically transcendent, nonlocal, and intersubjective dimensions of consciousness—research that is often uncritically dismissed due to its paradigmatically challenging nature—as essential to the understanding of the human being and human potential, and thus essential to the future of the academy and society.
- Integrate a robust social justice/social activism thrust within the improvisatory/arts-driven consciousness revolution. This enables emergent consciousness studies work to intersect with, yet also expand the horizons of the activism that has long been prominent on college campuses.
- Promote awareness of what improvisatory-art driven, consciousness-based inquiry and engagement has to offer approaches to environmental sustainability.
- Promote awareness of what improvisatory-art driven, consciousness-based inquiry and engagement has to offer approaches to peace.
Organization of Artists and Athletes for Spirituality in Education and Society (OAASES)
OAASES recognizes profound parallels in the creative and spiritual dimensions of artistry and sport, viewing the athlete as an artist, and both arts and sports as powerful forums for heightened consciousness. The improvisatory thrust of much athletic creativity, particularly vivid in team sports (basketball, hockey, football, soccer, baseball/softball etc.) but also strong in individual athletic activities (golf, gymnastics, skiing, track, etc), represents a direct connect to jazz. The fact that many athletes, as with many jazz musicians, engage in meditation practices is another connection.
