When I first encountered the wonderful world of AACM, it never occurred to me that any of the composers would be even interested in a bourgeois form as opera. I had, like many listeners, associated the AACM with jazz and improvised musics.

Well, I was wrong. AACM was formed to insert African and Black American musics and ideas into the established western classical canon, not to avoid, supplant, or necessarily alter western classical music per se, except to include non-western musical ideas and create new works not dependent on the dominant influence of European cultural hegemony.

I had been aware of Anthony Braxton’s forays into theater works and, of course, Anthony Davis is finally getting recognition for his striking operas. But George Lewis, with roots in jazz, extended improvisational techniques, and truly experimental composition here shows us a gentle, entertaining theatrical style that is a heartfelt celebration of the AACM.

Afterword is in a way a musical sequel to George Lewis’ essential history of the AACM, “A Power Stronger Than Itself”. Here is a musical retelling of the history of the AACM. It is oral history in song.

This fine recording of a live performance is an ideal documentation of this opera. Of course one hopes for more live performance but it is a joy to have this recording stand as definitive, daring the challenge to mount another production, to tell this story again.

This is a chamber opera, meaning that it does not require a Wagnerian large romantic orchestra with epic staging and many singers with a huge chorus to boot. Only eight musicians and one conductor, three singers, and a cast of cameos comprise this little very listenable gem.