Free Improvisation Series: Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman. Photo from breath of life.

Ornette Coleman’s string of highly influential Atlantic recordings in the late 1950’s set off a firestorm of controversy and experimenting. By the early- to mid-60's, a large community of musicians in New York and elsewhere were busily testing the boundaries of jazz composition and improvisation. Even major figures like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis experimented using Coleman's head-free solos-head idiom. Whatever you thought about his music, Coleman was a disruptive force in the field of improvisation and couldn't be ignored. Improvisers were searching for ways to feel more freedom in their music, and Coleman provided a skeleton key.

In his small group work, Coleman has used the head-solo-head paradigm which originated in small group jazz in the 1930's or so. In this idiom, the harmonic progression outlined by the melody was also to be outlined by the soloists in their improvisations. Coleman used this idiom as well (many tunes on Tomorrow is the Question are altered blues or rhythm changes forms, and the solos follow the traditional forms) but more often he diverged from it, allowing the soloist to follow her own harmonic progression.

Improvisation can follow a chord progression with no set form, (see Miles Davis' “Flamenco Sketches”, “Teo” and “Spanish Key”) or form with no set chord progression (some of Tristano's and Dolphy's more-outside improvisations are examples of this). But in general, Coleman's music excised both, opting for a type of improvised counterpoint between soloist and bass that provided a great deal of insight into the role of the accompanying musicians, and by extension, the nature of the interplay between soloist and accompanist(s). If we are to maintain the traditional jazz value of mutual “listening”, then two options for interplay emerge: 1. the soloist/accompaniment roles are preserved, and the accompaniment leaps into a state of hyper-intense listening, or 2. the soloist/accompaniment roles simply collapse and the group arrives at collective improvisation.

Edited October 2022.

Free Improvisation Series: Jean Dubuffet & Asger Jorn

Jean Dubuffet & Asger Jorn

“I also have a preference for music without variations, not structured according to a particular system but unchanging, almost formless, as though the pieces had no beginning and no end but were simply extracts taken haphazardly from a ceaseless and ever-flowing score.” - Jean Dubuffet, 1961

In late 1960, Asger Jorn (1914-1973) invited his friend Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) to improvise music with him. They had several sessions between December 1960 and March 1961. Dubuffet recorded these encounters on a portable tape recorder, and made several finished pieces out of the sessions. Some of these finished pieces were released by an obscure Italian label called Edizione del Cavallino; others remained unreleased until the 70's or later.

The well-educated musical ear will likely interpret their formless and radical experiments as the clamors of inexperienced and unschooled hacks. But such judgments crumble upon consideration of their motivations for making music in this way. In 1941, Jorn wrote an article for the journal of Helhesten (“Hellhorse”), an underground art group, (in Nazi-occupied Denmark) in which he derided “the great masterpieces” as “nothing but accomplished banalities”. Describing the art of the non-professional artists, “[t]hese forest lakes on colored paper, hanging in gilded frames in thousands of apartments, are among the most profound artistic inspirations." [1]

Asger Jorn, Visio Geologico, 1969. Photo from NOT BORED!

These statements were not flights of youthful anti-authoritarian fancy, but early expressions of an ideology that would dominate his life and work. A lifelong sympathizer with communism and pacifism, Jorn was highly critical of the capitalist economic order and the ways society (and art) had become structured within it. He was a founding member of COBRA, which lasted from 1949-51. In 1957 he was part of a conference which resulted in the formation of the Situationist International. In May 1968, this collective succeeded in bringing about a general strike in France. Jorn had parted ways with the SI by 1961, although he continued to support them morally and financially.

Dubuffet studied painting at Académie Julian in Paris. In 1924, disillusioned with the value of art in society, dropped out of the art world and sold wine for his father's company. He returned to painting briefly in the 1930's, but there followed another period of silence. In 1942, he returned to art, this time permanently. He found particular inspiration in the work of Jean Fautrier, and became associated with the tachisme movement.

In 1923, he had been given a text of German psychologist Hans Prinzhorn’s “Bildnerei der Geisteskranken” [“Artistry of the Mentally Ill”] (1922), which helped developed his interest in the works of artistically untrained people.

Jean Dubuffet, Personage, 1964. Photo from the Opera Gallery.

In 1949, Dubuffet coined the term art brut (literally “raw art”) which he defined as work of “pure artistic operation, unrefined, thoroughly reinvented, in all its aspects, by the maker, who acts entirely on his own impulses”, brought on by a reliance “entirely on their own resources rather than on the stereotypes of classical or fashionable art”. [2] Dubuffet's ideas about art brut are complex, but in general, it was any art which was made independent of cultural influence. This could include, but was not limited to, art made by mental patients, prisoners, and children.

We thus see that both men specifically valued art which was aesthetically amateur and culturally unaffected. Since both had received formal art education, it is possible that they viewed music as a kind of blank slate for them to experiment with this amateur aesthetic more directly. Dubuffet emphasizes that neither he nor Jorn were “au fait with the output of contemporary composers”. They were not attempting to contribute to the theoretical canon that generated serialism, concrete music, and electronic composition. Both had had some previous musical training, but they deliberately chose instruments which they had no experience playing, many of them found or created by their friend Alain Vian.

The Grundig TK35. Photo by Michael Keller, from Rad-io.de.

Dubuffet recorded his collaborations with Jorn on a Grundig TK35 tape recorder (pictured above), Of the unprofessional nature of their recording methods, Dubuffet comments: “We consider that a good recording provides precise and distinct sound which seems to be coming from a close source; in our daily lives, however our hearing is submitted to all sorts of other sounds which, more often than not, are unclear muddled, far from pure, distant and only partially audible. To ignore them is to give birth to a specious artform, exclusively concerned with a single category of sounds which, when it comes down to it, are pretty uncommon in everyday life. I was aiming to produce music based not on a selection of sounds but on sounds that can be heard anywhere on any day and especially those that one hears without really being aware of them.”

Of music more generally, Dubuffet is acutely aware of the same truths expressed by John Cage (published that same year in Silence, 1961) and Pauline Oliveros (Some Sound Observations, initially published in 1968): the attempt to create music “which expressed people's moods and their drives as well as the sounds, the general hubbub and the sonorous backdrop of our everyday lives, the noises to which we are so closely connected and, although we don't realize it, have probably endeared themselves to us and which we would be hard put to do without.” He refers to this “general hubbub” as “permanent music which carries us along”, as opposed to “the music we ourselves express.” The two go together “to form the specific music which can be considered as a human beings'." [3]

:References:

1. Jorn, Asger. “Détourned Painting.” Translated by Thomas Y. Levin, available at Situationist International Online. Accessed June 15 2011.

2. Dubuffet, Jean. "Art Brut Preferred to the Cultural Arts", 1949 as cited in Krukowski, Jean Dubuffet and the Deculturation of Art, available at jean dubuffet. Accessed June 15 2011.

3. Dubuffet, Jean. “Musical Experiments.” Translated by Matthew Daillie. Available at UbuWeb Sound – Jean Dubuffet. Accessed June 15 2011.

Free Improvisation Series: Group Ongaku

Looking back through history, one can find numerous cultural and art movements which consciously reacted against the status quo. All anti-art is also anti-culture, at least to some degree: these are movements have developed in reaction to perceived limits or inconsistencies within art or culture. Such limits are addressed or transgressed transcended with satire (the French Incoherents), reactionary rhetoric (the Italian Futurists), and social action (the Situationists).

Group Ongaku

Listen to more on Ubuweb.

Post-World War II Japanese music was dominated by the influence of American music (rock n' roll, jazz) on one hand, and a fusion of modern Euro-American composition and traditional Japanese music on the other. Group Ongaku can be seen as either a fusion of, or a reaction against both of these approaches.
This group first played together in 1958, as the duo of Takehisa Kosugi and Shuko Mizuno, two musicology students at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. It was not named until 1960 when other members, such as Meiko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone had joined. Only three tracks are known to have been recorded; all are available on UbuWeb Sound and were recently reissued by Seer Sound Archive. The recordings speak for themselves: completely improvised, action-oriented rather than product-oriented (in keeping with the general anti-art aesthetic of the period) and highly experimental.

Takehisa Kosugi, photo by Kiyotoshi Takashima, from The Japan Foundation, London.

To understand what I mean by "action-oriented", we should take a look at what was happening in the visual arts. Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai (Concrete Art Association) was formed in 1954; their 1956 manifesto (written by Jiro Yoshihara) declares that gutai art "does not change the material but brings it to life". They "pursue the possibilities of pure and creative activity with great energy." Some examples are described:

"Kazuo Shirago placed a lump of paint on a huge piece of paper, and started to spread it around violently with his feet."

Atsuko Tanaka's "Clothing". Photo from I like boring things.

"Shozo Shimamoto ... [fired] a small, hand-made cannon filled with paint by means of an acetylene gas explosion."

Murakami Saburo, a Gutai artist, creating "Lacerating Paper", 1955. Image from Outside Japan.

Gutai was a predecessor to and influence on Fluxus, an international and interdisciplinary movement which brought all arts even closer to "life", often with guerilla tactics. The most famous Fluxus artist is probably Yoko Ono; her early work is very interesting. Central to the Gutai concept is the idea of "psychic automatism", the process of "[uniting] abilities of the individual ... with the chosen material." It's worth noting that Group Ongaku named one of their recorded pieces "Automatism", suggesting a direct ideological link to Gutai. Group Ongaku is most well-known for their improvised pieces, but this was just one part of their overall activities. They often accompanied puppet shows, dance pieces, and sometimes even performed compositions. Julian Cope's book "Japrocksampler" tells the story better than I ever could.

"In Gutai art the human spirit and the material reach out their hands to each other, even though they are otherwise opposed to each other."

:References:

Cope, Julian. "Japrocksampler: how the post-war Japanese blew their minds on rock'n'roll." Available online, accessed June 13, 2011.

Stuart, Caleb. "Yasunao Tone's Wounded and Skipping Compact Discs: From Improvisation and Indeterminate Composition to Glitching CDs." Available online, accessed June 13, 2011.

Yoshihara, Jori. "The Gutai Manifesto." Available online, accessed July 2, 2011.

Free Improvisation Series: Pauline Oliveros / Loren Rush / Terry Riley

Though recreation of compositions has dominated Western music for the last two hundred years or so, improvisation has not been far below the surface. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and Mendelssohn were accomplished improvisers; Johann Hummel even advocated for free improvisation, not just among performers and composers, but among the general public (quoted in Sarath, 2011). It was also, and remains common in organ performance. But as the years wore on, improvisation began to slip away from common practice of performers. It made a resurgence in the 1920's as jazz became a popular form of music, and this led to a lasting influence on Western music. But in the world of Western classical music, improvisation remained rare, and was even scoffed at by John Cage (during certain parts of his career).

Part Three - Pauline Oliveros, Loren Rush, Terry Riley, et. al.

In 1957, Pauline Oliveros (1932 - 2016), Loren Rush (b. 1935) and Terry Riley (b. 1935), three composers in San Francisco, assembled at KPFA studios. Riley was asked to provide the soundtrack to a short film about sculptor Claire Falkenstein called Polyester Moon. Instead of writing and performing a piece, the trio decided to improvise it. Rush had been a program assistant at KPFA, and so had access to the station's Ampex tape recorders. The trio recorded several improvisations and picked what they felt was the best one for the soundtrack.

The Ampex 351 (1958), an example of tape recorders from the era. Photo by the Villa Raspa Factory Organizzazione.

The experience of improvisation was so thrilling that the trio decided to meet regularly. They also continued to record themselves, but not just for novelty or posterity: recording enabled them to improve their work through critical listening and discussion, without prescribing “guidelines or structure” for their improvisations. Oliveros notes that improvisation with such imposed guidelines often "fell flat". The use of recordings liberated them from "unnecessary controls", allowing them to "develop trust in process through spontaneity." (Bernstein, 81)

They improvised as a trio, but also with guests. Laurel Johnson, a friend of Oliveros', was an untrained musician and frequent collaborator in the late 1950's. A man named Bill Butler is also listed on the RadiOm website, where recordings of these sessions can be heard, but no information can be found about him. They were also joined occasionally by their composition teacher, Robert Erickson (1917-1997). All three were students at San Francisco State, and studied privately with Erickson, who encouraged his students to improvise. (Fischlin, 53).

Loren Rush, photo from My KPFA - Conversations

Loren Rush remembers Erickson's role in the improvisation sessions as more proactive: "He would ask us to try things, not very much ... And we were perfectly willing to do it, because we were just making music." (Carl, 126)

Terry Riley, photo from New Albion Records

The original trio of Oliveros, Riley and Rush stopped improvising together in the late 50's, and each pursued their own separate interests. But improvisation remained a critical part of each of their work, and in the work of their friends Ramon Sender and Phil Winsor. Instrumental improvisations were used as the raw material for tape-based compositions, as in Oliveros' Time Perspectives (1961). Her earliest electronic compositions were also improvised. (Fischlin, 53)

Pauline Oliveros ca. 1966, photo from Sonoloco Record Reviews

"Improvisation was an all-important tool for all of us in the development of much collaboration and of the community that was continuing to increase its numbers. Even though we improvised together often, each person retained individuality and a style that was specifically different. Even so we bounced off of each other's work with glee." (Bernstein, 82)

-Pauline Oliveros

:References:

Bernstein, David W. "The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s counterculture and the avant-garde." University of California Press: 2008

Carl, Robert. "Terry Riley's In C." Oxford University Press US: 2009.

Fischlin, Daniel & Ajay Heble. "The other side of nowhere: jazz, improvisation, and communities in dialogue." Wesleyan University Press: 2004

Potter, Keith. "Four musical minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass." Cambridge University Press: 2002

Sarath, Edward. "Message from the President." ISIM Newsletter Spring 2011, Vol. 7, #1. International Society for Improvised Music.

Free Improvisation Series: Lennie Tristano

The next couple of posts will be a series based on research into free improvisation in recordings. Basically, my point of view is that free improvisation is an approach to music-making, not a style per se. Recorded evidence makes obvious that it developed spontaneously across several styles of music, in several different countries at about the same time, without any apparent communication between the people who engaged in it.

Therefore, this series is chronological, but this is not meant to imply a continuity as if this were a style like "jazz" or "baroque" or "reggae". These styles could be considered culturally-based, and are thus canonical; free improvisation is unique in that it is not. Anyone can "invent" free improvisation, whether they've heard of it before or not.

Lennie Tristano, Intuition

Given the integral role that improvisation plays in it, it was inevitable that jazz music would eventually lead to completely free improvisation. Although he has been overshadowed by the reputations of his contemporaries, Lennie Tristano was a significant figure in the jazz world in the late 40's. His approach to composing, often re-writing jazz standards with radical new melodies (i.e. "317 E. 32nd St." and "Lennie's Pennies"), foreshadowed future experiments with tonality by Andrew Hill and George Russell. He performed and recorded with Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, both of whom he profoundly influenced.

In 1947, Tristano was named “Musician of the Year” by Metronome magazine (thanks no doubt to the support of his friend Barry Ulanov, who edited the journal during this time). With this honor came the invitation to contribute to the magazine. Tristano did so with a pair of articles: "What's Right with the Beboppers" and "What's Wrong with the Beboppers". In the latter, Tristano expresses that mere imitation of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker would lead to stagnation of jazz as an art form. But while his convictions were clear, Tristano was no hyper-modernist, emphasizing the value in “contributing” to the music that came before, rather than diverging from it.

Photo credit: William P. Gottlieb

Tristano pontificates that “[p]erhaps the next step after bebop will be collective improvisation on a much higher plane because the individual lines will be more complex.” During the next two years, Tristano and his group played some of the first known experiments with free improvisation, even performing it at Birdland. Tristano, and later Konitz, used the term “intuitive” to describe such playing. Sometimes they blended free improvisation with tunes, a la Ornette Coleman, sometimes they just played without any theme at all. These eventually culminated with a recording session with Capitol Records, where these free improvisation experiments were finally documented.

On May 16th, 1949 (the Blackwell guide to jazz says April 23rd, 1949), Tristano and his group recorded “Intuition” and “Digression” for Capitol Records. Now, strictly speaking, these are not totally free improvisations because decisions were made beforehand about the order in which the musicians would begin playing, and the time span between entrances. (One may consider the 3 1/2 minute time limit allowed by the recording medium to be another limitation, though a less controllable one.) However, since it was established that they "were going to improvise strictly from what [they] heard each other doing", it is still worth noting these sessions in a chronology like this.

Lennie Tristano, Digression

When they began to play "intuitively", Tristano indicated that the engineer “threw up his hands and left his machine”. Tristano's management refused to pay him for the recordings and the company threatened that they would not release them. Barry Ulanov, who was present at the recording session, publicly challenged Capitol to demonstrate “courage and … enlightenment” by releasing the recordings. This coming from the editor of a major music magazine! Capitol eventually issued “Intuition”, the more upbeat of the two, as a single in 1950 (Capitol 7-1224, backed with a solo piano version of "Yesterdays"). "Digression" stayed in the can until this 10" EP came out in 1954 (Capitol EAP 1-491):

"Classics in Jazz" indeed.

Tristano was a critically-acclaimed jazz musician, written about frequently by major music magazines. He played on Symphony Sid’s popular radio show. Capitol, one of the "Big 6" record companies in 1947, also had Stan Kenton, Peggy Lee, and Bennie Goodman sides in its catalog. (To put it in perspective, this is exactly the kind of exposure being given to Miles Davis at the time.)

The 1950 release of “Intuition” received mixed reviews. Ulanov to describe the new recording as a “[revivication of] the contrapuntal form which underlies the great years … of Johann Sebastian Bach.” Billboard Magazine called it "Tristano's weirdest yet - only the most advanced tastes will appreciate the subtle work of Konitz, Marsh, Bauer and the rest of the group. This is bop to the nth degree." in 1953, Charlie Parker commented that “rather than to make the melody predominant … in the style of music that Lennie and them present, it’s more or less heard or felt.” (There are several recordings of Tristano playing with Charlie Parker between 1947 and 1951.) Of the EP which contained "Digression", critic Nat Hentoff lauded the group's “fascinating study in presumably ad lib counterpoint.” Even composer Aaron Copland weighed in, stating that "something has been developed here [in America] which has no duplication abroad]."

Of course, Tristano also had his detractors. Nat Cole, Tadd Dameron, Dave Brubeck, Oscar Peterson, and others, felt that the improvisations were esoteric, and criticized their self-conscious experimentalism.

It's no surprise that free improvisation didn't catch on of course: it's far too experimental and unpredictable for mainstream radio and club performance, but at least Capitol records took a risk by releasing it. I don’t know of any earlier recorded free improvisation, but it would indeed be exciting to discover free improvisation in ethnographical recordings, some unique home recordings, or long lost Louis Armstrong sides.

You can hear "Intuition" and "Digression" for free on Grooveshark.

Part Two of the series will be George Gurdjieff.

:References:

Shim, Eunmi. “Lennie Tristano: his life in music.” Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007.

Kernfeld, Barry. "The Blackwell guide to recorded jazz."

“What’s Wrong/Right with the Beboppers” June/July 1947 Metronome

Lennie Tristano Discography

The Sounds of Earth: Interstellar Freeform (revised)

(photo: NASA)

This is The Sounds of Earth, a gold-plated copper record album which has been fastened to the identical Voyager I & II spacecrafts. One side includes images, depicting Earth, some as diagrams, but many as color photographs.

The images are encoded in a way that is both analog and digital, a less high-tech version of what would later become the RCA VideoDisc. A binary signal is encoded, physically, to the disc. It is read in exactly the same physical way as an ordinary vinyl record: a stylus runs over a groove. But there is another process involved in encoding and decoding the information: a binary, and therefore digital, process. The end result would be a kind of phonographic slideshow.

At a rotation speed of 16 2/3 rpm, Frank Drake figured out how long the record would have to spin to encode and decode a color picture. A small video company called Colorado Video, Inc. was selected by Valentin Boriakoff to encode the images. This was in 1977; in 1971, Jon Clemens at RCA filed a patent for an "information record" which was the first step in a consumer line of VideoDiscs. These didn't go public until 1981, so it's likely that CVI's was developed independently. I am looking for the patent used by CVI. In the meantime, the principle is diagrammed here, in Jon Clemens' 1971 patent on the "information record":

photo: CED Magic.com

What images were included?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axj1CVG6udE

The sound portion begins with a welcome from the United Nations secretary general, Kurt Waldheim. Then come greetings in 55 languages, representing a greeting from the entire world. Whether this will mean anything to any potential alien listeners is questionable, but if they are as curious as humans, there is no doubt that they will pore over these words, as our archaeologists furiously hypothesize about Stonehenge.

What follows is a sound collage called "Scenes from Earth", a narrative which begins with a selection from Willie Ruff and John Rodgers' realization of Johannes Kepler's Harmonia Mundi, a sonic representation of our Solar System. The collage ends with sounds of human consciousness and a few seconds of a distant pulsar. In between, we hear sounds of earth's storms, volcanoes, and sounds of human activity and invention, all brilliantly mixed to give the collage a binaural quality.

The musical selections are drawn from all around the world. Admirable attempts are made at representing as many cultures as possible, although Western music is a little over-represented in my opinion. The entire record, can be listened to here:

http://www.goldenrecord.org/

From an extraterrestrial's (or future human's) perspective, our music may be no different than human speech: simply a manipulation of sound waves by which we communicate ideas. With language, we communicate ideas more concretely: specific requests, questions, etc; with music, more abstractly: through manipulation of bamboo pipes and boxes with strings in them. From this perspective, what we call "music" is the simple and predictable result of natural phenomena, expressible as mathematical equations, just as are the sounds of volcanoes, the weather, and other animals. Similar sentiments have been stated by John Cage and Pauline Oliveros, among others: music is just sound, and nothing more. It is simply our psychological projections and theoretical analyses that make it seem like more than this.

The separation between human and primate, technology and object, music and sound is not real, it is only imaginary. The limitations of the sound recording medium allow incidental machine sounds, speech in 50 languages, and "music" alongside each other as if to demonstrate this fundamental equivalency. (Incidentally, an excerpt of the impulses in Ann Druyan's brain was included in the aforementioned sound collage.)

The media's response to the Sounds of Earth was largely positive. One negative review could be found in The Wilson Quarterly, in which the critic asks what "some future cosmic junk collector" would make of the record's various features. The cynicism of this point of view is matched only by the hastiness with which this review was obviously written; it can be dismissed. I know of no other attempt to criticize of the Sounds of Earth, other than perhaps that it was a waste of money. This is just a question of priorities, and priorities are simple to rearrange.

For Sagan, the Voyager spacecraft were not mere scientific tools. They were expressions of mankind's creativity, curiosity and hope. In their era, Voyager I & II represented the pinnacle of jet propulsion, aerodynamic, computer, and nuclear science. This knowledge was applied to exploration and discovery, rather than to petty intimidation and violence. The Sounds of Earth is no different: Sagan viewed it as more than sound, more than music. It is a beautiful artifact to behold, and if we had any sense, CD's of it would be in every library in the country.

Project Director: Carl Sagan
Image Director: Frank Drake
Image Conversion: Valentin Boriakoff & Colorado Video, Inc.
Music Directors: Tim Ferris, Carl Sagan
The Sounds of Earth: Ann Druyan
Greetings: Linda Sagan

Revised June 2nd, 2011

All About Emergency Managers: An analysis of HB-4214

Talk of HB-4214 has been making the rounds for a couple of days. Articles by E. D. Kain and James Parks, and on-air mention by Rachel Maddow have helped to spread the word about this otherwise little-known piece of legislation. It's very easy to take pundits and columnists at face value, but responsible citizenship requires us to look in closer detail at the legislation in question. I have done so below, and hope you will do the same and draw your own conclusions. You can find the legislation below:

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/%28S%280dt31045210gkc4523a5eanw%29%29/mileg.aspx?page=BillStatus&objectname=2011-HB-4214

[As my source I am using the pdf file "As Passed By The Senate", rather than the summaries or analyses.]

First let's ask if the assertions are true: does the legislation indeed allow for the appointment of "emergency managers" to take control over democratically-elected offices?

In a word, yes. HB-4214 is sponsored by Michigan's 79th district representative Al Pscholka (R), whose other legislative projects indicate a preoccupation with labor and education reform of a pretty radical variety. This particular bill provides the legal means by which the state executive can "take action and to assist" local governments (those of cities, townships, school districts, etc.) if it is determined that those governments are in a condition of "financial stress or financial emergency". Assistance is provided through the assignment of "emergency managers" who are given certain powers over governmental functions. The next question is, what is the extent of the emergency managers' powers?

We will return to this question after establishing some background. Parks, Kain and Maddow state that Gov. Snyder has the more or less autocratic authority to "declare" a city, village or other local government to be in a financial emergency, and to assign an emergency manager. But this is only partly true. The legislation clearly lays out the process of determining the existence of a "local government financial problem". This process is carried out in un-democratic ways, but it is not strictly dictatorial.

The determination is made by a "the state financial authority of a local government", detailed in §12. Subdivisions (a) thru (r) describe specific situations, at least one of which must be present (as determined by the state financial authority), in order for a preliminary review team to be established. This preliminary review team is appointed by the governor, and will consist

"of the state treasurer or his or her designee, the director of the department of technology, management, and budget or his or her designee, a nominee of the senate majority leader, and a nominee of the speaker of the house of representatives. The governor may appoint other state officials or other persons with relevant professional experience to serve on a review team to undertake a municipal financial management review." §12(3)

The situation is somewhat different in the case of school districts, including at least

"the state treasurer or his or her designee, the superintendent of public instruction or his or her designee, the director of the department of technology, management, and budget or his or her designee, a nominee of the senate majority leader, and a nominee of the speaker of the house of representatives." §12(4)

This review team is given "full power" to "examine records and books" (§13(1)a), "utilize the services of other state agencies and employees" (§13(1)b), and negotiate what is called a "consent agreement" with the chief administrative officer of the local government in question (mayor, commissioner, etc.). This agreement must be approved by the "governing body of the local government".

In political rhetoric, this is the opportunity for the people to voice their opinions. But because of our representative (indirect) democracy, we can only formally voice our opinions through our representatives. Therefore, if this legislation is used against our community, we must try to influence city council members by voicing our opinions. Council meeting times and locations are available on city council websites.

§15 provides the governor with the authority to determine whether or not the local government is in a condition of severe financial distress, and therefore what action to take. The local government has 7 days to request a hearing on the governor's ruling. Even after a hearing, the governor, "in his or her sole discretion based upon the record, shall either confirm or revoke, in writing, the determination of the existence of a financial emergency."

In other words, after the governor's decision (on the existence of a financial emergency) is made, a hearing on the governor's decision may be requested. But even after the hearing, the governor has sole veto power. More democratic legislation would require this final decision to be made by an outside entity, or at least by committee.

§15(3) This decision may be appealed by a vote of 2/3 majority of the governing body of the local government, to the Ingham County circuit court. If the governor's decision is found to be unsupported by evidence, or to have been "arbitrary, capricious, or clearly an abuse or unwarranted exercise of discretion" (basically an abuse of power), the court may overturn the governor's decision.

§15(4) If a financial emergency is found to exist, "the governor shall declare the local government in receivership [my emphasis] and shall appoint an emergency manager to act for and in the place and stead of the governing body and the office of chief administrative officer of the local government." The bill mentions the emergency manager's "broad powers ... to rectify the financial emergency..." Elected democratic officials have no powers "except as may be specifically authorized in writing by the emergency manager and are subject to any conditions required by the emergency manager."

Parks asserts that "the bill even allows Snyder to appoint a corporation as the emergency manager." This is untrue: §15(5)c of the bill clearly stipulates that the emergency manager must be an individual. However, this does not preclude possible associations with (and thus, influence from) large corporations, even those outside of the local government's reach (§15(5)b). The only requirement is that emergency manager candidates must have "a minimum of 5 years' experience and demonstrable expertise in business, financial or local or state budgetary matters." (§15(5)a)

§15(8) Short of impeachment, only the governor can remove the emergency manager, either if he/she is not doing satisfactory work, or if the "financial emergency is rectified", which is determined by the state treasurer [§15(9)].

Emergency managers do not have absolute power. For instance, if the emergency manager wants to "sell or transfer a public utility" in a city or village, "approval of a majority of the electors" is needed. §17(2) says the emergency manager does have the authority to suspend elected officials' "access to the local government's office facilities, electronic mail, and internal information systems". But §19a indicates that "the salary, wages, or other compensation, including the accrual of postemployment benefits, and other benefits of the chief administrative officer and members of the governing body of the local government shall be eliminated." This is indeed looking more and more like a power grab.

§19(1) spells out all the various civil powers of the emergency manager. While all are worth reading, (c) is one of the most alarming: the emergency manager will "receive and disburse on behalf of the local government all federal, state, and local funds [my emphasis] earmarked for the local government. These funds may include, but are not limited to, funds for specific programs and the retirement of debt." So basically the emergency manager has absolute control of our tax money.

This bill provides the legal means for Gov. Snyder to decide that, say, the CEO of Chrysler, being an "expert" in business and financial budgetary matters, would be an appropriate emergency manager for the city of Detroit. The CEO of Chrysler would have control over all federal, state and local funds headed to the city of Detroit. We'd be fools to believe that his use of our funds would be unbiased to his position in Chrysler. All he would have to do is convince Gov. Snyder and the state treasury that his financial decisions would save Detroit from financial oblivion.

Collective bargaining is mentioned in several places. §20b explicitly addresses collective bargaining, but does so to protect "payment of a benefit upon the death of a police officer or firefighter that occurs in the line of duty". However, in §19(1)k, the emergency manager may "reject, modify or terminate 1 or more terms and conditions of an existing collective bargaining agreement." This decision is legitimate if the emergency manager and the state treasurer decide that it is "reasonable and necessary", given local and broader economic climates, and given that it is "temporary and does not target specific classes of employees".

Lastly, to nail the point home: §25 grants immunity of liability to emergency managers, "as provided in section 7(5) of 1964 PA 170, MCL 691.1407."

As Michigan residents, we should be embarrassed at the lack of faith our house, senate and governor have in our ability to solve our own problems. Rather than working to support labor, education and health care, which obviously encourage community and free thought, serious steps are being taken to make them dependent on private institutions for funding. The local governmental system has the capacity to represent the people. Michigan's cities and schools already have a bothersome reliance on corporate funding, it does not also need state-appointed babysitters. HB-4214 would pave the way toward a regression to feudalism. While we would be short-sighted to cry "fascism", we would be far more so to accept Gov. Snyder's signature on this cynical piece of legislation.

(As a side note: Sections 2, 4, and 6-11 are curiously absent from the documents available at the link above. Whether this is an oversight or a deliberate omission is uncertain.)

UPDATE (3/14/11): According to a personal email from Rep. Pscholka, sections 2, 4, and 6-11 do not exist:

"The sections that you are referring to do not exist. The bill is formatted by specific standards developed by the non-partisan Legislative Service Bureau (LSB). LSB does all of the bill drafting for all members of the House and Senate in the State of Michigan ... All other Michigan legislation is formatted similarly."