Musics (magazine)
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Musics was an independent magazine launched in 1975 dedicated to the coverage of Free improvised music. Its need was originally suggested in a conversion between Evan Parker and Madelaine and Martin Davidson.
In 1975 Derek Bailey, Steve Beresford, Max Boucher. Paul Burwell, Jack Cooke, Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Madelaine and Martin Davidson, Richard Leigh, Evan Parker, John Russell, David Toop, Philipp Wachsmann and Colin Wood formed the journal MUSICS, later described as "an impromental experivisation arts magazine".
The journal was distributed through postal subscriptions and through a network of alternative bookshops and similar outlets. The Musics collective took the principled position of relying on this form of direct finance from readers, rather than seeking income from advertising or grant-aid.
With full respect to Bells and The Grackle, the content of its 20+ issues made it arguably the most significant publication in the history of improvised music in the second half of the 1970s.
MUSICS argued for the destruction of artificial boundaries and linked jazz, the music of composers such as John Cage, and indigenous and non-European musics. It was significant in the discussion of traditional Asian instruments (Clive Bell) as paths of equal value for the performance of musics, a term that discarded the use of the word jazz. The journal moved quickly to discard jazz-dependence on personalities to become a collective.
The magazine collective convened and organised the inaugural meeting of the London Musicians Collective in 1975.
