Music Universe, Music Mind

Music Universe, Music Mind: Revisiting the Creative Music Studio, Woodstock, New York
Arborville Publishing, 1996. ISBN 0-9650438-4-3

Music Universe, Music Mind is an essential chapter in the story of improvised music’s evolution. It is the only in-depth examination of the Creative Music Studio, a unique study center for music as a universal force, beyond styles, beyond traditions.

This is a fascinating account of the opportunities that drew students from around the world to Woodstock, New York, from 1971 to 1984, for intimate study at the Creative Music Studio with some of the era’s leading jazz and contemporary musicians–Anthony Braxton, Don Cherry, Dave Holland, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cecil Taylor, Trilok Gurtu, Karl Berger, Lee Konitz, Jack DeJohnette, Nana Vasconcelos, Ed Blackwell, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pat Metheny, Oliver Lake, Babatunde Olatunji, and many, many others.

Through interviews with students and guiding artists and through his own reminiscence, the author, a Creative Music Studio alumnus, presents a chronicle of the Studio’s development, a portrait of its heyday as a world-music center, and a perspective on what made it ahead of its time.

Music Universe, Music Mind is a must read for everyone interested in the progression of late twentieth-century music and the intersection of forward-looking jazz with the burgeoning world-music movement.

$14.95. Order direct from the publisher. Send inquiries to robertesweet21 [at] gmail. com.