Roscoe Mitchell - Discussions (Wide Hive Records, 2017) ****½

By Nick Metzger

Roscoe Mitchell has said that the reason he stayed away from writing orchestral works was because he thought that they wouldn’t get played. The cause for his recent reconsideration is that so many offers were coming to him to do concerts with different orchestras around the world, that it allowed him to come into the orchestra on his own terms. ForDiscussions Mitchell selected 4 improvisations from his Conversations diptych with Craig Taborn and Kikanju Baku (FJC reviews here and here ) and had them commissioned for creative transcription by colleagues and students for orchestra, performed here by 19 diverse musicians conducted by Steed Cowart (Mitchell’s Mills College colleague). The remainder of the album consists of two duets between Mitchell on sopranino saxophone and the fantastic Mexican flautist Wilfrido Terrazas, as well as two collective improvisations from the ensemble.

The album begins with ‘Cascade’, the avian-like dialogue between the sax and flute resonates and scatters across the stereo field. Terrazas provides swift runs and percussive pops as Mitchell strews the measures with shrill contours and piercing counterpoint. ‘I’ll See You Out There’ from the album Conversations I is the first of the scored improvisation pieces. The original is very sparse, just Mitchell on reeds and Craig Taborn on piano. They merely suggest a structure, so spare is the instrumentation. The orchestral version starts off quietly as well, with strings replacing the piano parts; other woodwinds, brass, and percussion enter fluidly. The mood of the original piece remains intact throughout, but this time around there is much more ornamentation and drama. The piano introduces itself only towards the end of the piece. ‘Discussions I’ is the first of two improvisations by the ensemble. Horns bleat over tangles of color laid down by the string, vibes, and flute. The piece becomes increasingly busy, with new dialogues being started and others joined. The flutes and vibraphones on this piece are particularly lovely, as they add airiness to the margins that bring balance to Mitchell’s caustic sax runs. The use of the double bass is more prominent in this track as well, with its understated notes sounding off the piece. ‘Cracked Roses’ from Conversation I is the second scored improvisation performed by the ensemble. Similar to ‘I’ll See You Out There’ the original piece is skeletal, with Mitchell and Taborn sketching soft shapes and contrasts against Baku’s drums, which supply the piece with an anxious impetus. Again, listening to the two pieces separately and back-to-back, the orchestral arrangement is incredibly faithful to the original whilst developing on some of the ideas proposed in the improvisation. Suggestions from the original are embellished in the remake, careful listening is rewarded here. The forward propulsion of the original rhythm is present, only with an orchestral percussion sound palette.

‘Frenzy House’ from Conversations II is a study in timbres from Mitchell over Baku’s hyperactive drums. Taborn’s presence is largely in the background, embellishing the clatter with swelling electronics. The scored performance retains the searching feel of Mitchell’s playing on the original, but instead of his lone reed there are now a variety of instruments probing the texture spectrum. The drums build and accent rather than propel the track as vibes, piano, and strings highlight the structures suggested by the original. ‘Home Screen’ is the second collective improvisation from the ensemble. The way the instrumentalists navigate this space is exceptional. There is so much communication and interplay within the group it sounds cohesive. The amount of musical information presented in the piece is striking; themes morph and meld into new themes with a level of interplay verging on telepathic. ‘Discussions II’ finds Mitchell and Terrazas resuming their conversation on flute and sopranino sax. It is 2 minutes of good hard solid dialogue between the instrumentalists. Lots of intensity and again a tremendous number of ideas presented in such a blistering way that it demands repeated listening. When the din of sound subsides and the final piercing notes fade out, Mitchell can be heard calmly and quietly saying ‘Ok, Ok Wilfrido, thanks man’, to which Terrazas emphatically replies ‘Thank you!’

‘Who Dat’ from Conversations I is the liveliest of the four scored improvs. Where the original sees Mitchell on various reeds dueling with Taborn’s electronics and Batu’s rabid snare rolls and cymbal hiss, the scored piece expands on these ideas radically with this 22 minute version of the 6 ½ minute original. An intro of strings recedes into still space occupied by vibraphone, chimes, and percussion pocked with Stockhausen electronics. The brass brings commotion to the proceedings, and a fantastically odd reinterpretation of Mitchell’s original lines on trombone highlights the first half of the track. Brass and strings enter into heated discourse before the piece again falls back to the halcyon and playful dialogue of the electronics, vibes, and percussion. The strings and piano pick back up the levels of buzz and connect in an active interchange with the horns. The piece closes over percussion faithful to Baku’s roiling performance on the original.

This review comes a bit late as this album was released last year but it’s been worth taking the time to try and assess it properly. I hadn’t heard the Conversations albums before writing this review, but as the previous reviewer noted they are certainly worth your time. It was especially gratifying (but not required) to have spent some time with those records when listening to the scored reinterpretations of the originals on Discussions. With the exception of ‘Who Dat’, Mitchell selected sparse pieces that merely suggest forms. Like the use of an underpainting, the orchestral scores were built up on top of these suggestions and provide unique expressions while retaining the ghosts of the originals. ‘Who Dat’ on the other hand takes the experimentalism of the original to new places, and with that progresses the definition of orchestral music. The collective improvisations on this album are well done and enjoyable, and the orchestral performers sound like they enjoy the unique setting and the freedom afforded by this type of music. Roscoe Mitchell continues create art at the highest level, and it’s a remarkable thing that after so many years of innovation he continues to produce some of the most forward thinking music in the world.

‘Youtube Links for ‘Who Dat’
Conversations I Version:

Discussions Version:

References
FJC Review of Conversations I:
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2014/02/roscoe-mitchellcraig-tabornkikanju-baku.html


FJC Review of Conversations II:
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2014/05/roscoe-mitchell-conversations-ii-wide.html

Read More

Roscoe Mitchell with Ostravská Banda , Plays Distant Radio Transmissions (Also Nonaah Trio, Cutouts for Wind Quintet, and 8.8.88) (Wide Hive, 2020) ****

By Gary Chapin

My gateway into modern chamber music was, believe it or don’t, the AACM and Art Ensemble of Chicago, which, I know, is not the way it’s supposed to go. But the AEC, amidst everything else, had these chamber-ish pieces that eschewed the usual appeals to emotion (via repetition, pattern, dynamic shift, density, or what Andrew Cyrille called “that feeling of levitation we call swing”) and were, instead, evenly pulse-less, pace-less thoughtful provocations. They refused to trigger me in the usual way, and got thoroughly under my skin and still get to me. Then, in 1990 or ‘91, I heard Thomas Buckner sing with Roscoe Mitchell at a Songs in the Wind performance and I was, as they say, ensorceled.

In Distant Radio Transmissions, Buckner returns to Mitchell’s side as an improvising soloist, and that’s just one of the interesting things about this recording. Performed with the Czech modern classical ensemble, Ostravská Banda , the title piece is based mainly on a transcription of an improvised trio done by Mitchell, Craig Taborn, and Kikanju Baku on Mitchell’s 2013 Conversations I album. I say “mainly” because there were a few other steps along the way before Mitchell orchestrated it in 2017 for the Ostrava Days Festival of that year. I mention these steps of provenance because another of the interesting things about this recording is the relationship between through composition and improvisation. Mitchell is best thought of (by me, anyway) as a prolifically creative improviser. The bulk of “Distant Radio Transmissions” is through composed (transcribed and orchestrated) based on a previously recorded improvisation, and on top of this further improvisations (from Mitchell’s soprano sax and Buckner’s voice, for example) ensue.

The Nonaah Trio (piano, flute, oboe) is based on Mitchell’s masterwork solo alto saxophone pieces from his 1971Nonaah album. Here he builds upon them and makes through composed trio works (upon which he does not play). It’s worth noting that for a later commission, Mitchell expanded the solo sax work and “infuse[d] it with the grandeur of a full orchestra” for another festival in Glasgow. The “Cutouts for Wind Quintet” is, again, completely notated (I keep mentioning this because Mitchell himself does in the notes), and, again, it’s based on a series of concepts that originally were constructed for an improvising ensemble. The final piece, “8.8.88,” was composed for pianist Joseph Kubera, but is here executed on a disklavier and — as with Frank Zappa’s works for synclavier — the precision allowed by the technology gives the work a relentless energy and lightness. There are three short movements that really take the top of your head off, a brilliant encore to the whole recital.

And that’s what this recording is, metaphorically, a recital featuring a variety of Roscoe Mitchell’s chamber compositions truly illuminating the organic, generative relationship between composition and improvisation. I don’t think that relationship is controversial anymore, though it’s still worthy of comment, and it still surprises at times how powerful the music of that relationship can be. I’m tempted to bring out one of my favorite free jazz listener bon mots — “If you like this sort of thing, then you’ll like this sort of thing.” — but that tautology could go at the head of any review I write. I might put it on a tee shirt.

The fact is that Roscoe Mitchell is very good at this sort of thing and it comes naturally from him, and naturally to us. It isn’t mechanistic (despite the disklavier). It isn’t a confrontation. It isn’t tectonic. It’s ecosystemic. It is grounding, interesting, intriguing. It absorbs all the curiosity we have. And builds causes and effects upon implications, intended or not. This month it has actually provided comfort. It’s been that kind of a month. And it’s that kind of music.

Purchase at Wide Hive Records.

Read More

Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed - the Ritual and the Dance (Astral Spirits, 2021) ****½

By Nick Metzger

The legendary reedsman and composer Roscoe Mitchell officially became an octogenarian this past summer and his work continues to grow in scale and scope. His ambition and creativity never waning, Mitchell in a recent interview with SFJAZZ (on the occasion of his induction into the 2020 NEA Jazz Master class) said "...it takes a long time to be what I'm trying to be!" Though the pandemic has certainly slowed things down for the Chicago native (currently living in Wisconsin), it sounds like he's enjoying the additional time afforded by the lockdown to explore new ideas. Fellow AACM member Mike Reed has also been keeping busy, both keeping his venues the Constellation and the Hungry Brain afloat during the intermittent lockdowns as well as providing virtual and live events (when permitted). Their first duo album In Pursuit of Magic was released in 2014, the same year as the Conversations albums that have become so significant to Mitchell's orchestral works. The album is rightly framed in a review on the (Free) Jazz Alchemist as "A meeting of an avant-guard legend and a few decades younger disciple, one of the most active animators of the modern jazz scene in Chicago- ain't that a definitive prove of art's continuity?" It's a fantastic album that showcases the physicality of their approach across a pair of tracks. On the Ritual and the Dance that physicality is redoubled across a single long piece with Mitchell on saxophones and Reed on percussion and electronics.

The album was recorded in October of 2015 as part of the Oorstof concert series in Antwerp. The piece starts with Reed weaving sparse bits of percussion around Mitchell's irregular, probing sopranino squawk. These minor sounds quickly accumulate in frequency and velocity as the musicians lock into their heady and physical interplay. Reed is a spectacular drummer, a true lion of the skins he colors his crisp, flowing percussion with subtle and sometimes unexpected sounds. Here he puts on a clinic; the speed, power, and sharpness of his technique serve to soften his pummeling attack, but it is a pummeling nevertheless. Mitchell meets him right in the midst of his tempest, a swirling mass of razorwire sound piercing the din. Reed puts down his sticks and adds some light electronics as Mitchell continues working through his concept, then returns subtly and takes over as Mitchell inhales his first deep breath in a quarter hour. The rhythm relaxes and Reed stretches out, working over his toms and punctuating the maelstrom with violent cymbal work. His pace slows and there is a brief period where the duo employ a slightly more delicate measure. Mitchell, now on alto, plays long, wailing figures against the abstract rhythms of Reed. Mitchell's playing quickens as Reed briefly recoils before going in for the finish. Now on soprano, Mitchell peels off knotty, twisted passages within the barrage. The intensity wanes for a final time and Mitchell softly plays bells against Reed's thumping backbeat and the appreciative whoops of the crowd.

This is a special duo and I'd been hoping for a sequel from them for a while now. From Mitchell's artwork adorning the sleeve to the ferociously meticulous contents within, it's my favorite release so far in a still young 2021. Hopefully very soon now I'll get to make the trip up to see a show at one of Mike's places (and soak in a city I've not seen for too long now), in the meantime albums like this serve as reminders of a better time that I still hope to get back to. An incredible set of live music by two of the AACMs finest. Released today and very highly recommended.

Read More

Roscoe Mitchell - Bells for the South Side (ECM, 2017) ****½

By Martin Schray

At the end of the 1960s the situation for the publishing and production of avant-garde jazz music was very difficult, since the major labels were still reluctant as to signing artists and support them for a longer period of time, although there seemed to be an audience for this kind of music.  At that time Manfred Eicher, a jazz bassist and up-and-coming producer in his mid-twenties, decided to found a new label, ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music). Eicher’s plan was to establish a new approach by introducing a new way of high-class recording and presenting contemporary jazz. More so, he wanted to work with young musicians who were interested in uncharted fields of improvisation.

However, ECM was not the only German label which was initiated with this special intention. The same year Eicher started ECM in Munich (1969), Free Music Production (FMP) was founded in Berlin by a collective of musicians - mainly Jost Gebers, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. Although these two record companies represent two separate artistic ideas and producing values in terms of their approach to make music available, there is also an inevitable intersection as to their work. While FMP’s philosophy was focused on sonic condensation and piling up sounds in the style of Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, ECM’s line was more closely connected to the more open music of the Jimmy Giuffre Trio and Lennie Tristano. And there’s another difference: FMP recorded many of their albums live, Eicher wanted to use modern studio equipment to develop a distinctive sound, an idea incredibly crucial.

Eicher has often been criticized for this ideology (e.g. when Peter Brötzmann said that he cut off the balls of powerful groups for his productions) but it seems to be important to keep in mind that his ideas aren’t based on artistic poshness but on the plain fact that inventive and challenging music should be presented with the best possible production standards.

Finally, let’s not forget the complex and experimental albums ECM has published during the years by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Dave Holland, Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, Joe Maneri, Barre Philips, Craig Taborn, and Roscoe Mitchell.

With Mitchell’s new album Bells for the South Side, Eicher combines both approaches mentioned above. It’s a live recording of an artist representing both the compact, uproarious side and the spacious, decompressed one, recorded with the best possible equipment.What is more, Bells for the South Side is the result of a performance premiering at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art exhibition "The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to now" displaying the history and legacy of Chicago’s "Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians" (AACM). For the first time, Mitchell combines his four trios, juxtaposing and re-organizing them into larger formations, and by that, exploring and surveying not only his own music, but the musical history and legacy of both the AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In two pieces the musicians use the percussion instruments of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (Don Moye’s and Malachi Favors’ set-ups, Lester Bowie’s bass drum and Roscoe Mitchell’s percussion cage) - an army of gongs, bells, rattles, sirens, hand drums and more of what the Art Ensemble called little instruments, which refers to the African tradition of this music. But that’s only one side of the coin.

On the one side, pieces like 'Spatial Aspects of the Sound', 'EP7849', 'Bells from the South Side', and 'R509A Twenty B' are programmatic and typical for ECM recordings. Mitchell’s musicians analyze the essence of their musical material and its spatiality, letting the music breathe by using long notes and well-chosen breaks, they work with the reverberant museum space. There are floating moments which are reluctantly wrapped around by figures that seem to appear from out of the blue and then vanish into the depth of the museum.

However, this is not euphonic and complacent, the compositions continually change colours and textures, for example in the lyrical, yet gloomy bass guitar feature for Jaribu Shahid in 'EP7849', Hugh Ragin’s extended and shrill trumpet solo in front of a myriad of bells in the title track or Mitchell's and Fei’s sharp-edged shouts in 'R509A Twenty B'.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of music based on the layering of sounds, compact and immensely tight. Music that displays Mitchell’s roots in the 1960s, wild and rampant. Especially the trio with Fei and Winant on 'Six Gongs and two Woodblocks' and the one with Taborn and Baku in 'Dancing in a Canyon' are rough rides on free jazz waves. The most prominent example is 'Red Moon in the Sky', the last but one track, a 17-minute cacophonous orgy including all twelve musicians, that’s built up slowly just to transcend the emotional spectrum displayed up to that moment.

The performance is concluded with 'Odwalla', the Mitchell-composed 1973 theme song of the Art Ensemble, the last reference to the history of Mitchell, the Art Ensemble and AACM.

Bells for the South Side is celebration and reinterpretation of Roscoe Mitchell’s work, but it is not self-satisfied, it’s ambitious and innovative, created by a then 75-year-old man (the album was recorded in September 2015), who’s still full of energy and looking ahead. It’s two hours of cutting edge avant-garde, finely conceived, mature and honed, cut to the chase. One of the best releases of 2017 so far.


The musicians:

• Roscoe Mitchell - sopranino, soprano, alto and bass saxophones, flute, piccolo, bass recorder, percussion
• James Fei - sopranino and alto saxophones, contra-alto clarinet, electronics
• Hugh Ragin - trumpet, piccolo trumpet
• Tyshawn Sorey - trombone, piano, drums, percussion
• Craig Taborn - piano, organ, electronics
• Jaribu Shahid - double bass, bass guitar, percussion
• Tani Tabbal - drums, percussion
• Kikanju Baku - drums, percussion
• William Winant - percussion, tubular bells, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, roto toms, cymbals, bass drum, woodblocks, timpani

Watch “Spatial Aspects of the Sound“ here:

Read More

Archived 1979 Interview: Roscoe Mitchell Hits New Level of Musical Existence

Roscoe Mitchell, circa 1978. Photographer unknown.

By Don Phipps

Roscoe Mitchell sat down with me on February 4, 1979 before he gave a solo recital on alto saxophone in front of a full house at the now defunct Lulu White’s Supper Club in Boston, Massachusetts. This interview, published in its entirety in the September 10, 1979, edition of The Daily Free Press, where I was the Art Editor and a staff writer from 1978-1980 while a student at Boston University, has since been buried, available only on microfiche at the university library. It has never been published on the Web. To me, this interview is significant enough to warrant re-publication here. Mitchell today is 84 but when I interviewed him, he was just 38 – a good portion of his life and artistic output yet to come

Mitchell and his great jazz group, The Art Ensemble of Chicago (consisting of Mitchell, trumpeter Lester Bowie, fellow saxophonist Joseph Jarman, and a rhythm section of Malachi Favors Maghostut and Famoudou Don Moye), had returned the previous year from a decade long expatriation from the USA. This return was ebulliently celebrated with a raucous North American debut and performance of their entire seminal Nice Guys album (ECM 1126) at Jonathan Swift’s Pub in Cambridge, MA, on October 23, 1978. At the time of this concert, I had no idea who the Art Ensemble of Chicago even was! All I knew was that Anthony Braxton was opening the concert with a series of solo alto saxophone improvisations, and that I did not want to miss the event. Imagine then seeing the Art Ensemble play without any bias, pro or con, without knowing who they were, or having any idea just how important they were in the history of free jazz.

The solo concert Mitchell performed after this interview was just as special. It came on the heels of his 1978 release of L-R-G / The Maze / S II Examples (Nessa n-14/15). I noted in my coverage of that concert that a woman in the audience remarked loudly that Roscoe could “make that thing (his alto saxophone) say everything.” I would argue that truer words were never spoken.

My introduction to the interview began with the following:

“Mitchell, 38, is a founding member of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and the mastermind behind what many consider to be the greatest jazz combo of the decade, the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He also plays almost every wind instrument imaginable, from the flute to the contrabass saxophone. But even above these achievements, Roscoe aspires to the principle of the artist uncompromised, seeking to extend the boundaries of musical ideas. In a number of audible ways, he and his followers are changing the concept of what we think of as music. When I talked to him, he was both attentive and conscientious. His thoughtful answers about jazz and music as a whole revealed a man who possesses a confidence in manner as well as music. Above all, he was friendly. The following are excerpts from that interview:]

After years of working with The Art Ensemble, why have you begun to record on your own again?

Mitchell: I had started to do things on my own, so my name had started to go out again. For instance… as time went on the more push and sacrifice people had to do in the music, we formed (in 1969) the Art Ensemble has a collective. I had devoted a lot of my energy to the Art Ensemble. In the mid-70s the first things that started to come out on my own was, I think, the Sackville recordings, solo things, and the quartet and that, and I think that interest was starting to build up in me again. Then when Nonaah (Nessa 9/10) came out, it got such a good critic response, it was the natural order of things.

Your new album (Roscoe Mitchell, Nessa 14/15) contains compositions unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Can you tell our readers something about the pieces on the album and explain what you are trying to accomplish?

Mitchell: The album contains a piece (“The Maze”) for eight percussionists on one side, and on the other whole side is a solo piece for soprano saxophone (“S II Examples”). On the other whole record, it’s a double album set, is a trio (“LRG”) with myself, (Wadada) Leo Smith, and George Lewis. The trio is a thing where we take the complete reed spectrum and surround it with the complete brass spectrum and then you have all of these interactions of sound going on. It’s a form of meditative music. What I really like about it is that you can be listening to it and you can go away from it, and wherever you come back to it, you can go right back to listening to it at that spot.

The soprano sax piece, “S II Examples,” is fascinating. What are you attempting musically?

Mitchell: “S II Examples” is a one to five projected piece for soprano saxophone. The Examples section is where I take all the fingerings of the saxophone, turn it all around, play it in a lot of different ways and produce different sound patterns. I then take these sound patterns, say I take one range of sound patterns, play them on tape, listen to them, then maybe take these sound patterns and start to move sound patterns around instead of notes. These are just examples of sound patterns. I’ll probably release a tape to go with the book that catalogues the various sounds. “S II Examples, tape example 1” for instance: “Delayed side B-flat key.” Play that example. You could have sound movement, Example 1 with the delayed side B-flat fingering to Example 2, a low B trill. If I have these particular fingerings happening, then I’m going to have new sounds. It can allow you to move in music in ways that can trick you. You might even think that it’s going a certain way and it goes another way.

You say you set up this recent series of concerts to do improvisational music. What does improvisation mean to you?

Mitchell: Improvisation is in a really growing stage. What happened was in the early sixties, when people started experimenting with freer forms of music, there were a lot of choices to choose from… because there were so many things that had not been dealt with. Everything felt new and fresh. Now we’ve established certain things that can happen within certain kinds of musical situations… It’s a constant thing, like being able to improvise, being able to study improvisation, to be able to take the idea of improvisation to the next level, improvise on that level, study improvisation, and go on from there. You build up all this information, and then release that information, experiment with it, and it keeps opening up all the time. What I’m doing now… is investigating the alto as much as I can in a solo context so that I can have some control over that medium. I figure that playing by yourself is the other end of playing with a lot of people.

Do you have any musical influences?

Mitchell: I just get the whole thing on people. I’ll go through a day and I’ll listen to Duke Ellington, or go through another day and listen to Bird (Charlie Parker), or go another day and listen to Bach. Whatever is appealing to me at the time. Currently I’m in a real study period in music. I’ll listen to some double record sets of Duke Ellington, and I’ll notice how much music was on these double-record sets. After you listen to the whole record, you couldn’t even remember what you heard on the first side because so many things had gone down in the music.

Who did you listen to as you were growing up?

Mitchell:When I was growing up there wasn’t such a divide between my parents and myself and what we were actually listening to musically. My parents could go out on the street and listen to Bird, Lester Young, or whatever, or go up to the club in Chicago, and everybody was coming through there, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, everybody. These are the kind of records we had at home. Now everything is so much more separated. The parents don’t really listen to what the kids are listening to.

I have the same problem with my parents.

Mitchell: Yeah, I even had that problem with my family. My father grew up in music as a singer. But when my music started to change, he said, “Oh Man, what is that?” At that time Jack DeJohnette and I were playing together a lot and Jack was playing drums and I was playing saxophone and that really took it out because there wasn’t any piano and bass or nothing. Just this thing happening.

That’s pretty wild. Anthony Braxton has recently released a new album with the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestra titled For 4 Orchestra (Arista A3L 8900). Are you doing anything in the way of orchestra composition?

Mitchell: Later this month, I’m doing a thing in Austria with a quartet, a solo piece, and large ensemble. What I’m doing with the large ensemble is trying out different ochestrational techniques that I want to apply to an orchestra piece I’m going to do later this year. Eventually it will be recorded.

You mentioned techniques for orchestra. What do you mean?

Mitchell: I’m working with certain types of queuing techniques where you can shift the music all around and different kinds of things and have spaces happen differently each time depending upon the people that are playing and the way their body tempo is going that day, and how they are feeling; and checkpoints for each person in the composition, so that if you are starting to go out of it, I can slow down the pace if I want to, or speed it up; or like trying to have a lot of natural considerations in the music so that the music can flow along naturally like the way we are breathing.

Does it bother you to see yourself compared with Anthony Braxton so much?

Mitchell: No. We all came up together in Chicago. We have known each other and played together for getting close to twenty years. People are definitely going to refer to us when they talk about the music. I think the thing that is unique about the Chicago musicians (AACM) is that Anthony and Joseph (Jarman), (Henry) Threadgill and myself, to mention some of the reed men that came out of that era in music, although we all came up together, everybody has still developed their own type of style and then own type of approach to music. Then that’s even gone past that now, because people are defying styles. You have people that can give an illusion of having no style at all. It’s gone past like “he plays alto saxophone, and he plays this or that.” People are beginning to represent themselves in a lot of different lights now. Ten years or so ago, people had to go out and function as strong people inside strong individual small groups and make strong representations of themselves as soloists. Now things are beginning to open up and people are being able to do even larger projects

, so we are beginning to see another side of it.

The question of style interests me. Do you have a style you could call your own?

Mitchell: My style is just the way I go about doing things. I might play the same piece that you do. My tone will be different from yours and the way I approach a particular thing rhythmically and the type of accents I may use would make the difference. Once you make a style for yourself in music, then you can keep your style, and everything else that you can add to your vocabulary is just resynthesized in your own style. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. I want to have music where it doesn’t sound like me, but is me. That has got to be the ultimate in pure music.

Where do you think you are now musically?

Mitchell: I’m trying to develop into a state where I can be more meditative in the music, and play with longer concentration spans, and have the music going on for longer spaces of time. I do want to get into big pieces now. I think people ought to go out and hear these big extravaganzas every now and then. The musicians are ready to do it now; it’s just a matter of being able to finance these projects.

Besides wanting to do large pieces, do you have any personal direction?

Mitchell: I’m reaching for another level of my musical existence. When I started to play all the different instruments, my embouchure shattered, and I couldn’t play anything for a while. But now all these instruments are beginning to come, they are beginning to come. It’s not like if you pick up one instrument and go on to another it’s the end anymore. A lot of things… motivate me. Such as the experience of being able to go and get people that I’ve functioned with for almost twenty years now and being able to have specialized pieces of music if I want to. There are other opportunities that are opening up. We are getting fusion, not only in the jazz rock thing, but now we’re getting fusion from classical music into improvisation so that opens up so many more avenues.

You mentioned jazz rock. Jazz in the public’s eye is represented by the fusion sounds of Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Chuck Mangione, rather than Roscoe Mitchell and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Why?

Mitchell: It’s a matter of nervous systems and how fast people’s nervous systems can adjust to these other sounds before they can start to take them in and listen to them. Now all of a sudden, “Wow man, we can have the same rhythm with a whole lot of other chords!” That started to open people up. When people hear other music now it’s not such a far place for them to go, straight from rock to the more freer forms of music. Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Chuck Mangione are really big draws, comparable to the rock stars, and I think that’s good, because it is making the transition and it’s coming out that we’re getting more and more people.

But there has been an acoustic whiplash in jazz. Some musicians such as Keith Jarrett and Cecil Taylor have openly criticized the very basis of electronic (fusion-based) music. You feel no antipathy?

Mitchell: You have to remain open. There is something that can be done with all different types of sounds in musical situations. What happens when you close yourself down is that you have died. No one else. Everything else is still going on. We are now faced with the possibility of the computer…. It’s a challenge to me to be able to sound like a machine if I want to. I can learn a lot from that. It’s a challenge to deal with a machine. It’s hard work just like anything else. You got people who can go in there and get songs out of the computer but that is not really that interesting. We want to try to strive for things that are on a much higher level. It’s interesting to take yourself out of the context of a melodic flow and move through sound structure in a different kind of way. The “S II Examples” I’ve been telling you about comes close to being able to match these sounds.

Music is founded upon a compositional process. With the advent of the 12-tone system and mathematical atonality, many people would say that music is cold and unexpressive. In fact, insincere. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Mitchell: If we look at it with an open mind and one considers that sound is sound and we can use it the way that we want to display a certain picture, and if you go about your work in a sincere manner, then the results will be like that. No matter what medium you’re using, it should turn out with the same sincerity.

How would a person guard against insincerity in music?

Mitchell: It has to do with longevity. People will come up and sound good for a year, but how will they sound in twenty years? This is the thing you have to look at. The thing about playing an instrument is that in the final end, you have got to face the instrument and play it. When a piece is done well and then it can be broken into a mathematical equation, especially if you’re dealing with the 12-tone system or any other system for that matter. People who do music, many times they don’t take that into consideration the type of mathematical equation they are dealing with. And sometimes they do. If we look at the music of Charlie Parker, it is a clearly defined mathematical system that he uses to play his music. However, when he was doing it he probably thought, “Well, I want to play music differently from Lester Young,” because Lester Young inspired him. Then he started to use the tops of the chords and developed a whole thing from that. It is no different.

Your music has suffered economic repression, whether it has been the lack of playing engagement or the inability to record. Does the repression continue today?

Mitchell: Sure. People play all sorts of games. The period that the Art Ensemble did not record was a result of these games. But the music is coming around so strong that it is beginning to come out. If you take something and try to press it into a wall, and it keeps trying to come out, it is going to come out. The music was able to push through… and still be alive at the end of it.

Are you bitter?

Mitchell: I’m not bitter. I’ve always managed to make it in a good way. The music has been good to me. I have tried to be loyal to what I am doing and the rewards come with that. I was able to survive.

You’ve done much more than just survive. A personal question, Roscoe. Do you feel that your influence will be discussed 30 years from now?

Mitchell: I should certainly hope so. I consider myself one of the prime innovators of this music. Whoever is a historian and wanted to check the music out, the way you would have to do it is to go back to the earlier recordings. You would be able to see what my contributions have been to the music. If you really listen to the music, you can hear something that might sound new and go back and listen to something that I did in the sixties where I covered the area already. I think it is very important for guys that are doing the work have it documented very well, so that when people go back and study these people, they can actually see their musical development as it went along and relate it to the time it happened.

Do you intend to continue experimenting with music?

Mitchell: Yes. The thing is if you don’t do it, you’re going to fall behind because there are guys out there that are doing it. My thing is that I’m not going to spend this much time in the music and not share in the rewards that are coming up now. I can’t see that at all.

It’s a shame you’ve not been able to record more frequently.

Mitchell: That happened because I put a lot of time into a group situation, and now the whole thing is turning over again. I’m finding now that most of my musical ideas are really extended kind of things, meditative. You can have one idea on a record. One whole record! And I think it’s just a matter of time and more and more things will be happening.

[Author's note: In the Daily Free Press of February 14, 1979, I published a review of the performance Mitchell gave following this interview. Some excerpts from my review:]

“Roscoe, playing on the E-flat alto sax, created what he fondly calls sound collages – a spare minimal broach of mathematical reasoning and fiery spirit…. In concert, he moved with confidence along cold floating melodies, eerie… with patience and assurance. His breathing and pacing were masterfully controlled, sparse, dry, raspy, and witty. His piercing saxophone slotted inverse textures that courted perfection….

“The fourth piece of his first set had the presence of a Bach fugue. On an audible stream of air, Roscoe transformed large bursts and running notes into the sweet space of atonal modulation. Mitchell’s instrument belched, boomed, and squeaked, sounding like Morse code. The motif were exciting exposes with unparalleled use of dynamics and pointillistic impressions….

“Roscoe’s inner sense of ecstasy found joyful expression…. Full hand trill runs, devoted concentration all flowered into beautiful lyricism. As notes filled holes while other spaces opened up, the music hung balanced between sound and silence…. His music contained elements of tribal rhythms and the native south, of swing hop and cool jazz, of the cerebral and the gut level of feeling….

“Roscoe’s many-faceted improvisation was set aglow in a radiant light. His extraordinary genius found itself in inspired proportions; the sax crumbled, decimated, disappeared – replaced by sound, pure sound on a musical plane which transcended beyond itself….

“Outside of the small group of critics who have already paid homage to Roscoe Mitchell, history awaits. His genius is sure to be recognized in the future.”

Read More

Roscoe Mitchell/Craig Taborn/Kikanju Baku - Conversations I (Wide Hive, 2014) ****½

By Josh Campbell

A year ago I didn’t follow Roscoe Mitchell with the fever or manic nature I followed other artists. But the half dozen or so albums I had of Roscoe held their own within my ever growing collection. Between Art Ensemble of Chicago and the endless group formations Roscoe has led, his discography has always intimidated me. As someone who finds an artist, and dives deeply into their world, I had, and still have not been able to give Roscoe the time and ears he so rightly deserves. But in early 2013 Roscoe released Duets with Tyshawn Sorey and special guest Hugh Ragin on Wide Hive Records. Since anything involving Tyshawn is an immediate purchase for me I jumped on it. It was love at first note. And so began the plunge into Roscoe Mitchell.

Fast forward to February 2014 and Conversations I. With Conversations I, Roscoe Mitchell releases his second album as a leader on the Wide Hive label. Teamed up with Craig Taborn on piano, organ and synthesizers and Kikanju Baku (who?!?!) on drums and percussions, Roscoe, at the tender age of 73 delivers again. Roscoe has always used space and silence almost as much as he has sound. A feature of his sound since his AEC days I expected much of the same. With little pre-release info, and no sound samples to give me any clue as to what to expect, I inserted the cd and excitedly pressed play.

Track 1. Knock And Roll. Instantly came the trademark sound of Roscoe. Sparse and dissonance. Slowly building, Taborn and Baku inserting ideas here and there. Engaging and what I expected. Then around the 1 minute mark, Baku starts to really get going. This led to more from Roscoe, while Taborn interjected notes around the percussion and reeds dance. And then all hell breaks loose. An absolutely unexpected and delightful free-for-all in sound. Bells, horns, drums, and piano exploding from my speakers. For the next 6 minutes I was left breathless. I was actually concerned with getting through the entire album because I had not mentally prepared myself for the onslaught. And suddenly at the 8:16 mark it all stops. Track 2 starts. Ride The Wind. And we are back to the Roscoe I’ve grown accustom to. The rest of Conversations I, plays out as expected with a Roscoe led album. For the next 9 tracks the music bobs and weaves, slowly building to a crescendo of noise at track 9, Darse only to lovingly slow and end on the final song Last Trane To Clover Five. After the initial shock of Knock And Roll the album falls into place and becomes a standard, as if anything Roscoe does is standard, addition to his his ever growing discography.

In all, Roscoe once again delivers, Craig Taborn displays his connection with Roscoe, as well as his ability to play the perfect supporting role. The unknown here was Kikanju Baku (literally his face is covered in all images), who I had never heard before. After the opening track it was surprising and pleasant to hear Baku play delicately and in-tune with the rest of the trio. Kikanju Baku should be a force within the free jazz world and I’m looking forward to more of his contributions. His addition made this album stand out to my ears. In April, Wide Hive is slated to release Conversations II, and I am eagerly anticipating it. For a collector who prefers a physical medium, the album comes in a digipak case. Very little info is provided but the packaging, as was his Duets release, is beautifully done. Sound quality is top notch.

Read More

Roscoe Mitchell - Sustain and Run - Ao Vivo Jazz na Fábrica (Selo SESC SP, 2016) ****

By David Menestres

Roscoe Mitchell. Do you really need an introduction to this man? Founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and the Creative Arts Collective. An unrelenting explorer of all aspects of music who is currently the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills College. Mitchell’s work stretches across the music spectrum, from solo improvisations to compositions for orchestras around the world. There is a strong argument to be made that Roscoe Mitchell is THE great American composer of the last 50 years.

Sustain and Run - Ao Vivo Jazz na Fábrica is Mitchell’s new solo album recorded live in Brazil in 2013. Right from the start, Mitchell shows a fire-breathing intensity unmatched by most other players. The music is heavy, exploring the more extreme registers of his horn. The name of the album is actually a good description of the music. It is like listening to Mitchell deliver a monologue from Samuel Beckett, the notes and rhythms twist back upon themselves emerging as new ideas that drive the improvisations forward. This is an album that demands your attention, one that won’t allow you to do anything else but listen. It should come with a warning about operating heavy equipment while listening.

A rewarding listen and an excellent addition to the massive Roscoe Mitchell discography. It’s beautiful to see Mitchell is continuing to be this creative after more than five decades.

Read More

50 Years of AACM: 1975-1984

The AACM retrospective week continues today with our highly subjective, entirely personal, and completely non-representative list of albums plucked from our own collections to represent what the recordings of the AACM and it's musicians have meant to us as enthusiasts of the music. Today, the years between 1975 and 1984.

By Colin Green, Martin Schray, Matthew Grigg, Paul Acquaro, Stef Gijssels

Air – Air Song (Whynot/Trio Records, 1975)

This trio set new standards in musicianship and integration. Henry Threadgill (reeds, flute), Fred Hopkins (bass) and Steve McCall (drums) came together in New York – to where many AACM musicians had moved by the mid-70s –  to perform ragtime music in a play but this, their first album, was recorded in their native Chicago.

“I got into writing for people rather than just writing music,” said Threadgill, “it kills accompaniment and puts everything on an equal footing”. This can be heard throughout the album: Threadgill skilfully unpacks the themes, moving seamlessly from refined to acerbic. Hopkins, as adept at playing arco as pizzicato, weaves his sonorous bass lines through the trio, and McCall’s drums provide a counterpoint equal to the other instruments. This is genuine chamber music – there aren’t so much solos as passages where the others stop playing – but it’s not through-composed; there’s plenty of room for improvisation, of which all three were masters, shifting in and out of time at will. Dance of the Beast is free jazz at its tumultuous best – it could have been recorded last week, not forty years ago.

Air went on to record a number of other albums and stretched out more – particularly live – as they pushed this kind of playing even further. Another favourite is Open Air Suit (Arista Novus, 1978), the first I heard, picked up in the second hand section of a record store. Those were the days.

It’s a mark of Air’s stature that Trio X, one of the leading saxophone trios since, named their ninth CD “Air: Above & Beyond” (CIMPoL, 2007). You’d think twice before claiming that. (CG)

Creative Construction Company - CCC 1 & 2 (Muse, 1975)

If there is one true AACM band, it's the Creative Construction Company, which consists of all its most prominent members,: Anthony Braxton on alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute, contrabass clarinet and chimes, Leroy Jenkins on violin, viola, recorder, toy xylophone, harmonica and bicycle horn, Leo Smith on trumpet, flugelhorn, French horn, seal horn and percussion, Muhal Richard Abrams on piano, cello and clarinet, Richard Davis on bass, and Steve McCall on drums and percussion.

Even if the records are from 1975, the recording is five years older, and it is a landmark recording for the kind of music that would find more traction later, a music which favored group improvisation as an ensemble, developing a common sound and sonic flow instead of successive solos by the various band members. There is no rhythm, no themes, no imposed structure, no compositional elements, just six instruments and more co-creating a mindblowing musical spectacular, of the kind that few would have heard before. And it works, it even works beautifully, because these artists have played and rehearsed together often, but also because they have the fantastic discipline to listen and move as one, without putting their own instrument in the forefront. This is not a free-for-all blowfest, but a major musical achievement.

I prefer the first volume, but both are really good. As a listener, you just have to go with the flow and listen to the myriad of things happening in this often dense forward moving stream of sonic threads, with calmer moments and avalanches, crazy outbursts and magnificent exuberance.

Eugene Chadbourne reviewed Vol. 2 too - for Allmusic - writing, "Braxton and company were going somewhere else of great interest by not relying constantly on jazz chops or a standard rhythm section sound, and the guests on this date seem to be blocking the road". I guess this is one of the most ridiculous comments have I've ever read. (SG)

Roscoe Mitchell: Old Quartet (Nessa, 1975)

Roscoe Mitchell’s Old/Quartet was released in 1975, however, the album is a private recording from 1967. The band actually captures the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble (which would later become the core of the Art Ensemble of Chicago) only with Philip Wilson on drums and percussion – and according to John B. Litweiler it was one of the greatest bands in jazz although it lasted only for six months. The quartet proves Mitchell’s outstanding qualities as a bandleader who controls the improvisation from behind the scenes just by changing sound colors, interspersing short motives or switching dynamics. Moreover, Old/Quartet presents where Mitchell’s music comes from (the opening track “Old” is a classic, slightly varied New Orleans blues with an ostinato bass), the current state of the art (the central tracks “Quartet 1 and 2” are free improvisations) and where he was headed to (the closing track “Solo” presents Mitchell in a solo performance). With this band the seed was sown, there was a recourse to tradition, freedom to improvise, the so-called “little instruments”, room for quiet passages, as well as silence contributing to the overall structure. And above all there are Lester Bowie’s distinctive lines and Malachi Favors’intense bass. (MS)

                                  

Anthony Braxton With Muhal Richard Abrams – Duets 1976 (Arista, 1976)

This may sound odd but I first heard Duets '76 on the radio a couple years ago. Mind you, WKCR out of NYC is not your typical radio station and it just so happened they were in the middle of a Braxton marathon. As for the song, it was 'Composition 40p'  and the unbelievably fun and rich tone of the contrabass clarinet in contrast with Muhal Richard Abram's piano work captivated me. I finally found a copy of the LP and have enjoyed it throughly since.

Braxton plays his assortment of woodwinds, including the Eb clarinet, clarinet, the sopranino sax, alto sax, contrabass sax and the aforementioned contrabass clarinet. The opener, Eric Dolphy's 'Miss Ann' is rollicking, and the closer 'Nickie', credited to both Braxton and Abrams, is a lovely ballad. In between, the music the duo makes is expansive. From the push and pull of 'Composition 62' which builds excitement through its extended abruptness to the duo's  joyful, and slightly askew, rendition of 'Maple Leaf Rag' which seems out-of-place, yet, perfectly logical. The latter providing a connection between early jazz and the forward thinking music that was coming from the members of AACM. Throughout, the improvisation and interactions are impressive, but really, it's that syncopated riff on the contrabass clarinet that makes me smile every time. (PA)

Revolutionary Ensemble: Revolutionary Ensemble (Inner City Records/Enja, 1977)

If it is true that the 1970s avant-garde had a lighter touch to free jazz than the sometimes aggressive, loud and iconoclastic 1960s version, then the Revolutionary Ensemble is the personification of this thesis. With their chamber music approach and their unusual instrumental combination they opened up new opportunities.  Here was a band with a dominant violin out front, given plenty of room by bass and drums, which wanted to “reveal to the seer and listener the music of nature” (Sirone). Additionally, on this live 1977 date, each of the members doubles or triples up on other instruments so there are a variety of textures and timbres, including kalimba, flutes (in the opening track “Clear Spring”), and piano. But mostly it’s Leroy Jenkins’ elegant violin improvisations, his expressive use of pitch and Sirone’s free spirit, his lightness and handiness with the bow, that predominate. Once again it became obvious how important more quiet parts were as a counterbalance to sound for many musicians of the AACM context. (MS)

Roscoe Mitchell: Nonaah (Nessa, 1977)

If I had had to choose only one AACM album I wanted to review, it would have been Roscoe Mitchell’s Nonaah. When I came across it first and listened to the opening lines of the title track it made my jaw drop. The story behind the track, which was recorded in Willisau in 1976, is that the people waited for Anthony Braxton but he couldn’t make it on time. So the promoter announced (in the nicest Swiss German accent, by the way) that they had to improvise (!) and that Roscoe Mitchell would fill in for Braxton. You can hear how disappointed, even angry some of the people were. And then Mitchell hits the stage and plays the eight-tone-phrase over and over again as if he was driving a huge stake in the ground (it lasts nine minutes!) – and the reaction of the audience is everything from puzzlement to uproar to pure rapture. “Nonaah” is a mixture between a fanfare (indeed the line first actually was created for the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s “Fanfare for the Warriors”), heavy metal, serial music and free jazz, it bookends the album (at the end Mitchell plays it in a quartet with Joseph Jarman, Wallace McMillan and Henry Threadgill, which is also great). Additionally, the album includes great duos and trios – but it’s the title track that is worth buying it alone.  It is confrontation, satanic ritual and ferocity in one. A real must have! (MS)

Lester Bowie - African Children (Horo, 1978)

On a double vinyl album, trumpeter Lester Bowie is in a band with fellow AACM members Amina Claudine Meyers on piano, organ and vocals, Malachi Favors on bass, Phillip Wilson on drums and non-AACM Arthur Blythe on alto saxophone. It's a typical Lester Bowie album, one that is as broad in scope as it is lacking in musical unity, yet somehow all tracks are by themselves of very high quality. The first side, "Amina", is determined by an open post-boppish expansive and flowing spiritual theme, with the piano taking a lead role, as well as Meyers' wordless singing, and Bowie and Blythe adding phrases and beautiful soloing. The second side starts with a ten-minute solo trumpet piece, a real in-the-moment avant-garde effort, closer to European improv than jazz, and is followed by the boppisch "Tricky Slicky", with walking bass and all, a great rhythmic foundation, even if Wilson's drums is insufficiently picked up by the mikes. Luckily he can start with the intro on side 3, again a twenty-minute piece, called "Chili Macdonald", a joyous Afro-Carribean piece, yet full of echoing theme phrases and frenetic free soloing, that completely explodes into free jazz, ending with sad bluesy trumpet. The last side is a tribute to Fela Kuti, and digs deep in the Nigerian's soul funk approach, with Amina Claudine Meyers doing some fantastic work on the organ, and Malachi Favors doing funky bass work as we've seldom heard him, yet this would not be Bowie if the whole thing was not completely deconstructed in the meantime, with rhythms that disappear, horns that go haywire, with a bluesy theme suddenly re-emerging and back to Fela.

This is Lester Bowie's music, taking the entire African musical tradition on board, full of joy, fun, yet at the same time taking it further, into realms these sounds have never seen, re-arranging it all for more modern times, and beautifully so. Great band and great album. (SG)

Leo Smith, Peter Kowald, Günter Sommer – Touch the Earth - Break the Shells (1979/1981, FMP)

This CD merges two previous vinyl releases. In terms of nationalities, the trio merged America, with West and East Germany, but musically – and most importantly – it was a merger of three musicians keen to extend the boundaries of free jazz, incorporating the rest of the world. Before World Music became a distinct genre, Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn, flute, thumb piano), Kowald (double bass) and Sommer (drums, percussion) integrated rhythms, textures and tonal colouring from a variety of cultures and idioms, producing something that is nowhere in particular and everywhere in general.

One of the features of their music is its highly focussed, sometimes abbreviated manner. Smith tends to favour aphoristic phrases interspersed with pauses, where silence becomes a positive. Sommer alternates between keeping time and subverting it, juggling with an array of skins, sticks and styles, but always with an ear for group sound and the bigger picture. Kowald searches for sympathetic or contrasting timbres, making quicksilver changes between plucked runs, thick glissandi, bowing below the bridge, and even using his bass as a percussion instrument. It’s music in a continual state of metamorphosis.

It can also evoke different moods. Radepur Im Februar, reflects the title: slightly bleak, with Smith sketching phrases in outline before his muted trumpet picks up pace. In Unlost Time Sommer’s pounding drums give the piece a ritualistic quality.

This kind of improvisation is now common currency, but one should not underestimate the effort required to loosen the shackles of the familiar, run with the unexpected, and avoid pastiche. (CG)

 Art Ensemble of Chicago - Nice Guys (ECM, 1979)

This is again one of these strange multi-faceted albums, full of quirky genre shifts, alternating Afro-Carribean dance ("Ja") with absolute avant-garde adventures ("597-59") and ending with the long and majestically bluesy annex blowfest "Dreaming Of The Master", yet it is of interest because it's AEoC's first release on the prestigious German ECM label, giving them sudden visibility and audibility to much wider audiences, and the album currently has even twelve issues in various forms and formats.

The band is Lester Bowie on trumpet, celeste and bass drum, Malachi Favors Maghostut on bass, percussion instruments and melodica, Joseph Jarman on saxophones, clarinets, percussion instruments and vocals, Roscoe Mitchell on saxophones, clarinets, flute and percussion instruments, and Don Moye on drums, percussion an vocal. And somebody plays their trademark bicycle horn, but that remains uncredited.

"Nice Guys" is a great introduction to the strange world of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It's relatively accessible, it's wonderfully produced, showing us around in the theatrical playground of African music in all its aspects, brought by a band of nice mavericks, whose personal skills and musical inclinations merge beautifully in this sonic melting pot. (SG)

 George Lewis: Homage to Charles Parker (Black Saint, 1979)

Looking at the title of this album you might expect a modern version of Charlie Parker’s bebop classics, maybe even new interpretations of his compositions. But then you are on the wrong track. George Lewis said that the approach of Homage to Charles Parker was influenced by Miles Davis’ quotation in which he had answered “criticism about not playing Duke Ellington’s music on an Ellington tribute concert by saying that performing at the highest level was the best homage one could give.” Lewis (tb) assembled an excellent band (Douglas Ewart on bass clarinet, Anthony Davis on piano and Richard Teitelbaum on electronics) and based his compositions on Charlie Parker’s life and afterlife. The music on Homage to Charles Parker includes deep and dark drones, electronics and free improvisation. Especially Teitelbaum’s electronics build exuberant textures which make the music appear as if a deeply relaxed John Coltrane was jamming with Tangerine Dream. You might call this spiritual ambient jazz, but Homage to Charles Parker is just a surprisingly accessible album proving the influence modern classical music had on AACM musicians. The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded this album with five stars and called it one of the “Essential Jazz Records.” (MS)

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Three Gentlemen from Chikago (Moers Music, 1981)

The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s first album highlights two crucial aspects of the AACM which have to do with their African heritage – Great Black Music and Ancient to the Future. Both concepts are based on historical awareness, spirituality and African polyrhythms. So it is not surprising that the leader of this band is a percussionist:  Kahil El’Zabar – who is joined by saxophonists/clarinetists Ed Wilkerson and “Light” Henry Huff.  From the very beginning the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has explored traditional sound colors and instrumentation and combined it with smooth, funky jazz grooves and a certain soulfulness on the one hand and free improvisation on the other. Tracks like “Brother Malcolm” with its addictive ostinato saxophone riff or “Moving of Seasons”, which is constructed from the sombre contrast of saxophone, bass clarinet and El’Zabar’s bamboo flute, are perfect examples of that. Today, the Ensemble still exists and it presents El’Zabar as a great folk soul singer in the tradition of Terry Callier. (MS)

Read More

Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tilbury, Wadada Leo Smith - Nessuno (i dischi di angelica, 2016) *****

By Nicola Negri

Nessuno, recorded live on 8 May 2011 at the always excellent AngelicA Festival in Bologna, Italy, features one of the most incredible line-ups ever, as it documents the one of a kind encounter of Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tilbury and Wadada Leo Smith – simply some of the most important and influential musical thinkers of the last (and present) century.

With musicians like this, what could possibly go wrong? But free improvisation is ultimately about exploration and surprise, and even when putting together some of the best improvisers on earth the result is not guaranteed. With the strong instrumental voices present here, finding the right balance to effectively integrate the musical discourse without overpowering it demands a superior sense of ensemble thinking, and Nessuno (Italian for “nobody”) is indeed the perfect title for this record, as the performance demanded a complete openness to the possibilities of the encounter, accepting the risks inherent in the confrontation with different musical practices without resorting to the safety net of tried and true personal improvisational strategies. As soon as the record begins, it’s clear that the musicians effectively found a strong mutual understanding, constantly listening to each other, disappearing in the collective sound while retaining their personal traits.

The resulting performance inhabits a space between free improvisation and contemporary music, while referencing both the tradition of creative music (especially in Smith’s trumpet playing) and electroacoustic research (thanks to Oliveros’s digital accordion). The first few minutes are already perfectly calibrated, all the musicians facing the collective improvisation with the right dose of restraint, without sounding overly cautious. The dialogue is kept on the possibilities of counterpoint, dynamic development and tonal contrasts, until the musicians focus on more specific roles: Oliveros creates an ever-changing background to support the developing structure, while Tilbury delineates a wide net of musical signposts to broadly delimit the harmonic frame; Mitchell participates with a subtle and forceful textural work, and Smith assumes the soloist role, sketching long narrative arcs over the richly layered backdrop provided by the ensemble. These roles are of course fluid enough to keep the music constantly challenging and surprising, pulverizing the group in different combinations and relentlessly pushing the performance forward. The following track is a completely different take on the same basic principles: here the instrumental voices fully maintain their independence, building a dense four-way dialogue in which every musician contribute with clear ideas and a strong presence, always maintaining an extraordinary cohesiveness and structural coherence. The third and final piece is another tight collective exchange that concentrates the previous trajectories in a powerful burst of creative energy, brilliantly closing a truly monumental album – essential listening for anyone interested in the art of musical improvisation.

Pauline Oliveros – V-accordion
Roscoe Mitchell – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
John Tilbury – piano
Wadada Leo Smith – trumpet

Read More

Art Ensemble of Chicago - We are on the Edge (PI Recordings / Erased Tapes Records 2019)***(*)

By Hinrich Julius

Anniversaries deserve to be celebrated – and with this recording, two of the historic five members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago do celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the band. Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye gathered an ensemble of 18 musicians (including a conductor) and dedicated the recording to the deceased members Lester Bowie, Shaku Joseph Jarman and Malachi Favors Maghostut. The ensemble includes well-known artists connected both to recent versions of the Art Ensemble and to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) like Nicole Mitchell, Hugh Ragin, Jaribu Shahid, Tomeka Reid and Junius Paul. Three strings and three basses in addition to three percussionists give it a flavor unknown to other recordings of the Art Ensemble and with reservations it can be called a nice and successful recording - not the highlight of the ensembles output, but in large parts a worthy addition to the catalogue.

Yes, it is a record of the Art Ensemble of Chicago – even with the augmented personnel. Since its beginnings other musicians have been members or at least been integrated for a recording, at the beginning especially in the position of percussion and then also as guest stars like Fontella Bass (Les Stances à Sophie, Pathé Marconi, 1970) or Cecil Taylor (Thelonious Sphere Monk: Dreaming Of The Masters Vol.2, DIW 1991 ) . The Art Ensemble was always liberal in allowing its members to do other projects as described in the highly recommended book by Paul Steinbeck: Message to Our Folks (University of Chicago Press 2017 ) . The ensemble also continued with new part-time members when Joseph Jarman dropped out of music for 10 years before returning in 2003. Today two of its historical members are still alive and active with especially Roscoe Mitchell producing both improvised (e.g. Bells for the South Side, ECM 2017 ) and composed music (e.g. Littlefield Concert Hall Mills College March 19-20,2018 Wide Hive 2019 ) on a continuous basis. This recording contains more composed passages than earlier Art Ensemble records probably due to the influence of Mitchell, but it also is a continuation of traditional spirits of the Art Ensemble – Black Power, Groove and Melody.

It is not easy to evaluate the music’s quality, as parts are charming and draw you in, while other pieces even do annoy, although in a calm and peaceful way. In its review of 50 years AACM, this blog called the already mentioned record with Cecil Taylor the Art Ensembles’ Swan Song, its last relevant recording. Reviews of a concert of a smaller version of this Art Ensemble at the Berlin Jazzfestival in November 2019 make you hesitate to judge positively. The performance was called stale (“altbacken” in German ). It was neither black nor future, but rather conventional chamber music. And yes, partially these evaluations are true to these recordings as well. Largely it is composed music, pleasant, but not too pushing the boundaries of avant-garde music.

Percussion focused music / groovy, melodic pieces in my eyes work best (Bell Song, Saturday morning, the old Chi Congo 50, Oasis at Dusk). These songs are performed not as wild as on older records; the percussion instruments create a wide sound, very rhythmic and pulsating. The melodies are simple and enjoyable. It is a refined version of this music, not harming anyone, nice and very uplifting. It seems that Don Moye shared more responsibility for these pieces as they carry his name as composer.

Images of Black Power music shine in pieces featuring Moor Mother / Camea Ayeva (We are on the edge, I greet you with open arms, Mama Koko). She does not sing, she does not cry, but rather recites. The texts deal with the situation of black people in the US and refer to situations today and in the past, but set against a modern-conventional chamber-music background. At first, I was confused as the presentation seems to take the blood and life out of the old style protest songs. Composed strings introduce the title-song: “We are on the edge of victory.” "Victory" seems to mean that black people are now going to colleges and are able to move out of the projects, however, it is not said what we are on the edge of, and at one point it becomes "we are on the edge of open fire. A new hell." Ayeva's words are layered, there are twists and folds. What are the victories then? Once original expectations of old raw protest music is left behind, one can enjoy these refined versions.

Modern chamber music fills the rest of the recording (Jamaican Farewell, Villa Tiamo, Fanfare and Bell, Variations and Sketches from the Bamboo Terrace). Roscoe Mitchell composed Jamaican Farewell for a classical tenor (Rodolfo Cordoba-Lebron) – short interludes in the overall-composition. Many jazz musicians flirt with classical singing, and a short flirt it is here. In all pieces with strings, the orchestration is nice, modern, but not harmonically challenging. Dissonances are there, but swiftly resolved. “Fanfare and Bell” goes the furthest and allows longest frictions, while “Variations” stays blunt quite long and slightly gains through the classical baritone of Cordoba-Lebron. These pieces are new to the world of the Art Ensemble and I have to admit I had my difficulties with them. It is the attempt to extent the bands repertoire to a new field and repeated listening helps enjoying it.

The recording came out as a double CD-Box on PI Recordings / as Double LP (Studio recordings) / Four LP Box (Studio and Live concert), both on Erased Tapes Recordings. The CD-version and the Box contain as extra a live performance of nearly the same ensemble at the time of the recording in Ann Arbor “Live at the Edgefest” at the time of the recording. Both singers/speakers are not participating. The same pieces are performed and one can hear that the ensemble primarily follows the written charts. The live recording offers a very welcome addition of “Tutankhamun” – spirited, groovy and with Mitchell squeaking joyfully against the full ensemble.

In this recording, the old Art Ensemble continues to exist. Both surviving members enjoy the possibility to continue with its old traditions – one rather on the percussive, groovy path (Don Moye), the other with a vision of black, composed music (Roscoe Mitchell). They are older, so why not allow them a more gentrified version of the old uproar. Overall not a recording that pushes the boundaries of modern jazz or music in general, but a pleasant output of a band that has accompanied many of us in most of our active listening-time. Recommended – with above reservations to anyone who is open to enjoy a soothing version of the old anarchic Art Ensemble.

Read More