CCMC is a Canadian
free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...
founded in 1974.
History
The CCMC was founded by Peter Anson, Graham Coughtry, Larry Dubin, Greg Gallagher, Nobuo Kubota, Allan Mattes, Casey Sokol, Bill Smith and Michael Snow.
Three of the founding members (Graham Coughtry,
Nobuo Kubota
Nobuo Kubota D.F.A. (born 1932) is a Canadian multimedia artist.
Life
Kubota grew up with a strong Japanese focus in his home and with an early interest in the writings by Jack Kerouac and D. T. Suzuki. These two factors partially explain his ...
, and
Michael Snow
Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the f ...
) were members of
Artists' Jazz Band, a seminal Toronto free-jazz ensemble.
In 1976, the group founded
The Music Gallery
The Music Gallery is an independent performance venue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known as a space for musical and interdisciplinary projects in experimental genres. The Music Gallery is publicly funded through arts grants from the city, pr ...
as an artist-run centre
where they performed twice-weekly.
The group was formally associated with The Music Gallery until 2000. Members of the group were also founders of the
Music Gallery Editions record label, which issued CCMC's first six albums.
The group remains active to the present day, though through its various incarnations
Michael Snow
Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the f ...
has been the group's only constant member. The group currently performs as a quartet of Snow (piano/Octave Cat synthesizer),
John Oswald (alto sax),
Paul Dutton
Paul Dutton (born 1943) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist, and oral sound artist.
Early life and career
Dutton was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A member of the legendary Four Horsemen sound poetry quartet (1970–1988), along with Rafae ...
(soundsinging, mouth harp) and John Kamevaar (electronic percussion/electroacoustic sounds).
Musical style
CCMC's music is based on "improvisation-as-composition" (p. 40)
inspired by
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during ...
.
With no pre-existing compositions, live performance is central to the band's identity, and their early recordings were all recorded live in concert. ("Interviewer: Since the very beginning CCMC has recorded every concert, is that true? Michael Snow: Yes, that's, whatever it is, thirteen years of at least twice a week, plus all the tours. A lot of tape, yes."
Name
The abbreviation CCMC originally stood for Canadian Creative Music Collective. By 1978, and the release of the ''Volume Three'' LP, the group had collectively gathered several hundred alternate associations, many of which were reproduced as the cover art of that record. Following are a selection of the names found there:
* ''Craven Cowards Muttering Curses''
* ''Cries Crashes Murmurs Clanks''
* ''Careless Choir Muffling Chords''
* ''Completely Canadian Monster Circus''
* ''Certified Careless Mush Concept''
* ''Clip Clop Manure Crop''
* ''Catchy Canuck Melody Convinces''
[''Volume Three'' (Music Gallery Editions – MGE 6, 1978)]
Discography
*''Volume 1'' (Music Gallery Editions – CCMC-1002, 1976)
* ''Volume 2'' (Music Gallery Editions – CCMC-1004, MGE-2, 1976)
* ''Volume Three'' (Music Gallery Editions – MGE 6, 1978)
* '' Volume 4 - Free Soap'' (Music Gallery Editions – MGE 22, 1979)
* Larry Dubin & CCMC ''The Great Toronto Drummer's Greatest Recordings'' (Music Gallery Editions – MGE 15, 1979)
* ''Volume 5 - Without A Song'' (Music Gallery Editions – MGE 31, 1981)
* ''CCMC '90'' (Music Gallery Editions – MGE 90, 1990)
* ''Decisive Moments: Hot Real-Time Electro-Acoustic Collective Composition'' (Track & Light Recordings – TLR 02, 1994)
* '' aCCoMpliCes'' (Les Disques Victo – VICTO cd063, 1998)
* CCMC & Christian Marclay ''CCMC + Christian Marclay'' (Art Metropole/Non Musica Rex – ART MET CD004/NMRX 0003, 2002)
* ''CCMC Play At Double Double'' (Free Market Records, FMR07, 2011)
References
Further resources
* "CCMC"
Polyphasic Recordings* Freedman, Harry (1978). "CCMC VOL. III" in ''
Musicworks
''Musicworks'' is a Canadian avant-garde music magazine, launched in January 1978 by Andrew Timar (editor-in-chief) and John Oswald (design and production).
History
The first 4 issues came as a supplement to ''Only Paper Today'', a Toronto ar ...
'', No. 1.
Discogs listing* See the Music Galler
York University. "The fonds consists of two series, the CCMC concert series (1973-199-?) of twice-weekly public performances by members who have included Peter Anson, Paul Dutton, John Kamevaar, Nobuo Kubotu, Allen Mattes, John Oswald, Michael Snow, Casey Sokol, Jack Vorvis."
{{Authority control
Free improvisation ensembles
Free jazz
Canadian jazz ensembles