Writings

on the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)

Paul Steinbeck, Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022).
The first study of the AACM’s music.
>> order book: University of Chicago Press
>> reviews: Music Reference Services Quarterly | All About Jazz | Lincoln City Libraries | Valon Kuvia | Musicworks | All About Jazz | No Depression | La Lettura | Bookforum | Booklist | The New York City Jazz Record | The Wire | The Slowdown

Paul Steinbeck, “Nicole Mitchell, Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds,” Point of Departure 81 (December 2022). | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Rise of the Super Musicians,” The Wire 465 (November 2022): 52–53. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Present at the Creation,” Human Ties (November 1, 2021). | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “George Lewis’s Voyager,” The Routledge Companion to Jazz Studies, eds. Nicholas Gebhardt,
Nichole Rustin-Paschal, and Tony Whyton (New York: Routledge, 2019): 261–270. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, liner notes for George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell, Voyage and Homecoming (Rogue Art, ROG 0086, 2019). | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Listening to Voyager,” CTM Magazine 5 (2018): 44–48. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Talking Back: Performer-Audience Interaction in Roscoe Mitchell’s ‘Nonaah,’” Music Theory Online 22/3 (September 2016): 1–31. | LINK


on the Art Ensemble of Chicago

Paul Steinbeck, Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017).
The definitive study of the Art Ensemble.
Winner of the Steve Larson Award for Jazz Scholarship from the SMT Jazz Interest Group.
>> Italian edition: Grande Musica Nera: Storia dell’Art Ensemble of Chicago (Macerata: Edizioni Quodlibet, 2018).
>> French edition: The Art Ensemble of Chicago (Toulouse: Presses universitaires du Midi, 2021).
>> order book: University of Chicago Press | Edizioni Quodlibet | Presses Universitaires du Midi (PUM)
>> reviews: Alias | Jazz News | Le Souffle Bleu | Strumenti e Musica | Journal of the Society for American Music | Jazzit | Chorus | Fata Morgana | Valon Kuvia | RSI Cultura | Gazzetta di Parma | Leggere Tutti | L’Indice | Il Sole 24 Ore | Il Manifesto | Blow Up | The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory | Jazz and Culture | Alias | Magazzino Jazz | All About Jazz | Il Diapason | Il Manifesto | Musica Jazz | Giornale della Musica | Giornale del Popolo | Moving the River | Corriere della Sera | Salt Peanuts | Percorsi Musicali | JazzTimes | Orlando Weekly | Fresh Air | South Side Weekly | Down Beat | Jazzwise | The Wire | London Jazz News | Pop Matters | Free Jazz Blog

Paul Steinbeck, liner notes for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art, ROG 0122, 2023). | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Theme for Lester,” The Common Reader (October 11, 2021). | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “‘Like a Cake Made from Five Ingredients’: The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Social and Musical
Practices,” in Free Improvisation: History and Perspectives, eds. Alessandro Sbordoni and Antonio
Rostagno (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2018): 3–13. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s ‘Get in Line’: Politics, Theatre, and Play,” Twentieth-Century Music 10/1 (March 2013): 3–23. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Intermusicality, Humor, and Cultural Critique in the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s ‘A Jackson in Your House,’” Jazz Perspectives 5/2 (August 2011): 135–154. | PDF
Winner of the Steve Larson Award for Jazz Scholarship from the SMT Jazz Interest Group.

Paul Steinbeck, “‘Area by Area the Machine Unfolds’: The Improvisational Performance Practice of the Art Ensemble of Chicago,” Journal of the Society for American Music 2/3 (August 2008): 397–427. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Analyzing the Music of the Art Ensemble of Chicago,” Dutch Journal of Music Theory 13/1 (February 2008): 56–68. | PDF


on Anthony Braxton

Paul Steinbeck, “Improvisation and Collaboration in Anthony Braxton’s Composition 76,” Journal of Music Theory 62/2 (Fall 2018): 249–278. | PDF


on Fred Anderson

Paul Steinbeck, liner notes for Fred Anderson Quintessential Birthday Trio, Volume Two (Asian Improv Records, AIR 0087, 2015). | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “‘Patience, Sincerity, and Consistency’: Fred Anderson’s Musical and Social Practices,” Critical Studies in Improvisation 6/2 (December 2010): 1–24. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, Fred Anderson, et al., “Celebrating a Jazz Hero: A Symposium on the Role of Fred Anderson in Chicago’s Jazz Legacy,” Critical Studies in Improvisation 6/2 (December 2010): 1–103. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck and Frank Steiger, “Fred Anderson dans le texte,” Jazz Hot 653 (Autumn 2010): 35–37. | PDF

Fred Anderson with Paul Steinbeck, Exercises for the Creative Musician (Chicago: Many Weathers Music, 2010).
Fred Anderson’s method book for improvisers.
>> order book: Square


on visual art

Paul Steinbeck, “The Inner Sleeve: The Third Decade,” The Wire 404 (October 2017): 74. | PDF


on improvisation

Paul Steinbeck, “Improvisation, Identity, Analysis, Performance,” American Music Review 44/1 (Fall 2014): 16–19. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, “Improvisational Fictions,” Music Theory Online 19/2 (June 2013): 1–12. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck and August Sheehy, “Introduction: Theorizing Improvisation (Musically),” Music Theory Online 19/2 (June 2013): 1–9. | PDF


book reviews

Paul Steinbeck, review of Conversations with Charlie Haden by Josef Woodard and Charlie Haden, The Common Reader 7 (Winter 2017): 1–8. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, review of Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul by Mark Ribowsky, The Common Reader 5 (Spring 2016): 1–6. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, review of The Studio Recordings of the Miles Davis Quintet, 1965–68 by Keith Waters, Jazz Perspectives 8/2 (August 2014): 219–222. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, review of A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis, Journal of Music Theory 51/2 (Fall 2007): 333–340. | PDF

Paul Steinbeck, review of Blowin’ Hot and Cool: Jazz and its Critics by John Gennari, Current Musicology 84 (Fall 2007): 169–174. | PDF