The CMS was a very important place. The 70s were an interesting and hopeful time for creative music. Many musicians were already a couple steps beyond free jazz into explorations of the forces behind the music, and at the same time there was interest in extending the music itself through compositional thought and through an exploration of the music of other cultures. The CMS was a place at which creative musicians could meet, experiment, and get experience and recognition as teachers and theorists. It was also a place where a lot of younger musicians (me included) had their expectations and understanding of music and musicianship blown wide open.
Robert Sweet's book documents the history of this place, and of some of the prime movers. Still to come (I hope) will be a deeper study into the actual material which was being uncovered at that place and time. Sweet mentions some of the many ideas floating around: yoga, meditation, Zen, numerology, and a kind of nature-spirituality were being explored as a basis for music-making; while at the same time George Lewis was there talking about his computer music algorithms; while punk and "punk jazz," minimalism, African and Asian rhythmic systems, European avant-garde systems, etc., were all butting heads together, with many musicians into pretty much everything at once.
The open quality of the 70s has largely disappeared, and few musicians still speak of the spiritual side of music-making. Musicians now seem to focus their music much more tightly. Partly to blame are the tough economic times which require musicians to make identifiable products for easy consumption. Throughout Sweet's book you'll hear mentions of this loss from pretty much everyone interviewed (and one of the book's strengths is that Sweet gives the musicians space to speak for themselves).
By the time I reached the end of Part 1 of MUSIC UNIVERSE, I was going on to those around me that the CMS had to be re-established as soon as possible! Although the book could use some fleshing-out with more of the details of what actually went on in classes led by Roscoe Mitchell, Braxton, Leo Smith et al, I recommend it highly as a reminder that the music world - and the world beyond - were much more idealistic not so many years ago, and possibly could be so again.
Dan