Conference Agenda

Organized by the Jazz and Improvisation Study Group.

Chicago has long been an important center for improvised music. The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) was founded there in 1965 and remains a vibrant hub for musicians seeking to explore innovative original work. The city is also home to an active free improvisation scene, with historic ties to European artists and scenes in Amsterdam, Berlin, and beyond, and has seen the rise and fall of storied improvisation venues such as the Velvet Lounge and HotHouse. This panel discussion will bring together musicians and scholars who have worked in Chicago’s varied improvisation communities. Participants will include AACM chair Coco Elysses, a versatile multi-genre artist, and scholar-practitioner Ritwik Banerji, a saxophonist who has both performed and done fieldwork on free improvisation in Chicago. Moderated by ken tianyuan Ge, the panel will consider how improvisation can act as a catalyst to explore issues of identity formation, the value systems of genre, and the cultural topography of large cities like Chicgao.