In Artists in Exile (HarperCollins), author Joseph Horowitz nimbly choreographs a panoramic cast of exiled artists who came to these shores as refugees—from conductor Dimitri Mitropolous (described as a "Dr. Caligari of the podium, clawing the air with huge hands..."), Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and Hindemith to film composer Erich Korngold, Edgard Varèse, and Fantasia conductor Leopold Stokowski. As in his previous book, Classical Music in America, Horowitz is encyclopedic but not esoteric. He astutely hears Varèse's landmark chamber work Hyperprism as a clandestine tone poem: "The sirens of New York, the shrill whistles of its harbor, the massive cement blocks of its avenues, are all 'sounded' in Hyperprism." And on the beloved cellist Rostropovich, Horowitz scores a bull's-eye, pungently observing that "as a Soviet cellist, he had served Prokofiev, Shostakovich, even Benjamin Britten; as an American conductor, he became a celebrity trophy for the nation's capital."

I'm also dazzled by A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago). Blending oral history, polemic, and scholarly archaeology, George E. Lewis chronicles the 20th century's most successful and enduring music collective, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. Better known by their initials, the AACM nurtured a breathtakingly long list of key figures in 20th-century experimental music, including the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, and Anthony Braxton. Lewis, an innovator of computer music and AACM member, vividly captures the collective's determined, rebellious drive. The late trumpeter Lester Bowie recalled, "The statement was that we can do this ourselves. You can't hire us, we can hire ourselves, we can produce ourselves, we can create this music on a high level. Wasn't no bullshit."

Two Seattle collectives, the SoniCabal and the Monktail Creative Music Concern, were directly inspired by the cooperative, transgenre model established by the AACM. Significantly, Power offers potent ammunition against received narratives of music history that segregate scores of African-American innovators such as Sun Ra, Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, and Lewis from the saga of 20th-century experimental music.

I still regret missing saxophonist Lee Konitz at the Ballard Jazz Festival last month. I was in Alaska rooting around reverberant tunnels and absorbed in Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser's Art (University of Michigan). Though no substitute for hearing the legend live, Konitz is "respectfully honest" and compelling while discussing improvisation, his history with Lennie Tristano, fellow saxophonists, and his decades-long investigation of jazz standards: "Having gone through 'All the Things You Are' thousands and thousands of times, I still have the feeling that I'm playing the first set of variations I ever played on it."

And finally, a little-known gem has reappeared. The obscure first edition of Don Ihde's Listening and Voice: Phenomenologies of Sound (SUNY) still commands $125 or more, but in an expanded (and affordable) reissue, Ihde explores how notions of listening influence and regulate the perception of sound, space, music, and language. And despite a few clumsy allusions to the avant—"Georgi Legeti" is incorrectly cited as an instigator of electronic music—clear, common-sense examples dominate this sagacious book: "We also hear surfaces. This auditory experience is involved with our ordinary experiences of things. Who does not recognize the surface in the sound of chalk scratching?" Essential.

Thurs 6/5

KURT ELLING

Why is Elling my favorite male jazz vocalist? He ventures where few singers dare to tread, from audaciously adding lyrics to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme—Coltrane's widow tendered her blessing—to gutsy, half-hummed falsettos to wordlessly gliding from note to note and always hitting the mark. Elling takes risks but always swings. Veteran saxophonist Ernie Watts augments Elling's trio. Through Sun June 8. Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave, 441-9729, sets at 7:30 and 9:30 pm, $24.50.

SEATTLE SYMPHONY

The "Coming to America" festival concludes with one of the great orchestral works of the 20th century, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. There isn't a boring moment in the Concerto; I love the accelerating brass in the first movement and the biting parody of Shostakovich's hit Symphony No. 7. Bartók's defiant masterpiece quickly entered the symphonic repertory, an unusual feat for an aggressive, occasionally abrasive work composed in 1943. Kurt Weill's "scenic cantata" The Little Mahagonny, a prototype for the allegorical opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, complements the program. Also Sat June 7 at 8 pm. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, 215-4747, 7:30 pm, $17—$95.

TOM BAKER AND DEAN MOORE

Moore, who can coax surprising sounds from his racks of gongs, cymbals, and miscellaneous percussion, teams up with composer and fretless guitarist Tom Baker. Gallery 1412, 1412 18th Ave, 322-1533, 8 pm, free, but donations accepted.

Fri 6/6

DOUBLESHARP PRESENTS

Russian piano duo Olga Skorbyashchenskaya and Konstantin Uchitel reprise a program honoring the centennial of the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music. Works range from hits by Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms (the Hungarian Dances) to pieces by living composers from St. Petersburg, including Leonid Desyatnikov and Yurii Krasavin. Fourth-floor Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 434-9969, 7:30 pm, $15.

Sun 6/8

ORCHESTRA SEATTLE

George Shangrow and the band perform Mahler's gorgeous Symphony No. 4 with soprano Janeanne Houston. This concert kicks off a microcycle of Mahler symphonies; the Seattle Symphony tackles Mahler's Sixth from June 26 through 29 and the Northwest Mahler Festival presents the Mahler Nine on July 20. First Free Methodist Church, 3200 Third Ave W, 800-838-3006, 7 pm, $10—$25.

RETURN TO FOREVER

Along with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the jazz-rock juggernaut Return to Forever sold truckloads of records in the early and mid-1970s. Keyboardist Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke on bass, guitar demon Al Di Meola, and drummer Lenny White reunite to serve up the bombastic virtuosity (turn-on-a-dime arrangements, jaw-dropping solos, etc.) that engendered scorn in a generation of punk rockers. Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St, 292-2787, 7:30 pm, $53—$113.50 (includes $13.50 in service charges).