“The AACM was about preparing people to exercise their own creative prerogatives in music that may or may not be jazz,” Lewis explains, calling us from his home in New York. “Once jazz becomes a set of behavior prescriptions for sound, it ceases to become something that will interest the smartest people among us.”

The AACM was founded 40 years ago, but Power begins well before that. Lewis explores the autodidact tradition of jazz musicians in 1950s Chicago and the profound economic, social and cultural impact segregation would have on the formation of the self-sufficient organization. He continues right up until the present, digging into the work of younger artists like saxophonist Matana Roberts and guitarist (and erstwhile Tortoise member) Jeff Parker. It’s a remarkable book, not just for corralling an enormous amount of information—interviews, critical reviews, music charts, news reports (the bibliography runs 35 pages)—but for making the result a digestible and thoroughly entertaining 500-page read.

Lewis has been an active member of the AACM since 1971, so the book has a certain resonance for him personally. “I felt a bit like Alex Haley,” he admits. “I was searching for Kunta Kinte, for my own roots.” And while he’s not necessarily an objective observer, he’s more than qualified to write this book: In addition to being an academic (he currently stands as director for Columbia University’s Center For Jazz Studies in New York), Lewis is also a respected trombonist and composer (his 1979 album, Homage to Charlie Parker, earned a rare “crown” rating in The Penguin Guide to Jazz). As such, he could not only read what the French and Italian critics of the ’70s thought of the European performances by the AACM’s flagship group, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (not all positive, he points out), but also discuss tunes with the musicians and read the sheet music the band left behind.

Given the acclaim Lewis has received as a musician and composer, why doesn’t performance play a larger role in his life? “I enjoy writing words just as much as writing music,” he explains. “You get the same sense of ecstasy, the same sense of ‘A-ha, it’s working!’ ” He’s also not the first jazz great to play dual roles: “I kind of take a lead from those people who weren’t historians but who necessity made historians,” Lewis says, citing accidental African-American authors such as jazz drummer Arthur Taylor and folk historian J.A. Rogers.

While the models the AACM has built—a “post-genre” sensibility, as Lewis puts it, and a self-sustaining, proactive education program—are inspiring, it’s the future Lewis is excited for. “I was just in Paris two years ago, for [the AACM’s] Great Black Music Ensemble performance,” Lewis says. “And there were a ton of fantastic people onstage, most of whom I didn’t know. If I could [finish] writing a book, then two years go by, and 20 new great musicians have joined, you’ve got to say the organization’s healthy.”

George Lewis joins the AACM’s Douglas Ewart and Nicole Mitchell for a panel discussion and performance at the Chicago Cultural Center Tuesday 15.