ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO – Live In Paris 1969 (Get Back Rec. / 2LP-2002)

Label: Get Back – GET 2017

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Reissue, Gatefold Sleeve / Country: Italy / Released: 2002

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded On October 5th, 1969 in Paris, France.

Liner Notes – Brian Case

Photography By – David Redfern

Producer – Jean-Luc Young

Original BYG recordings (Japan) – Live Part 1/BYG Records ‎– YX-2040

                                                        Live Part 2/BYG Records ‎– YX-2041

The LP was issued on the Arista Freedom label in the United States in 1974.

© 2002 Get Back - Manufactured and marked by Abraxas srl - via Aretina, 25 - 50069 Sieci (Firenze) Italy. Issued under license from Charly Licensing Aps

Matrix / Runout: GET 2017 DLP 1 A 33RPM

Matrix / Runout: GET 2017 DLP 1 B 33RPM

Matrix / Runout: GET 2017 DLP 2 A 33RPM

Matrix / Runout: GET 2017 DLP 2 B 33RPM

A - Oh Strange (Part 1) ………………………………………………….....…. 23:37

B - Oh Strange (Part 2) ………………………………………………….....…. 25:38

      Written-By – Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie

C - Bon Voyage (Part 1) …………………………………………….……....... 21:50

D - Bon Voyage (Part 2) …………………………………………….……....... 24:08

      Written-By – Lester Bowie

Personnel:

Lester Bowie – trumpet, fluegelhorn, bass drum

Roscoe Mitchell – soprano sax, alto sax, bass sax, logs, bells, siren, whistles

Joseph Jarman – soprano sax, alto sax, clarinet, oboe, flutes, marimba, vibes

Malachi Favors – bass, fender bass, banjo, logs, drums, percussion

Fontella Bass – vocals

Recorded in 1969, Live in Paris follows two studio albums that the Art Ensemble cut for BYG/Actuel during the same year -- A Jackson in Your House and Message to Our Folks. What Parisian audiences must have made of the band with its wild makeup and costumes can only be debated, but the music contained on this double-LP, original double album is stellar (the LP was issued on the Arista Freedom label in the United States in 1974). Each LP features one composition, divided into two parts. "Oh, Strange," by Joseph Jarman and Lester Bowie, begins with a very short, bluesy jazz theme that is augmented almost immediately with all manner of percussion instruments, which multiply until they literally take over, leaving Jarman and Mitchell, who knottily play a folk song variation on the opening theme that is articulated over moans, groans, and droning baritone and tenor saxophones. Dynamics and tension begin to gradually shift as notions of tempo, and even striated harmonics, are laid waste in the din. But this far from unlistenable noise; in fact, perhaps now in the 21st century more than ever before, the freewheeling improvisations of the Art Ensemble make a kind of syntagmatic sense. On the other monolithic piece here, "Bon Voyage," written by Bowie, the Art Ensemble is accompanied by the composer's then-wife, singer Fontella Bass, who recorded "Les Stances à Sophie" with them later (Famoudou Don Moye was not yet a member of the ensemble). Bass uses her rhythm and blues grit and gospel dynamics and control to improvise alongside the bandmembers, who have to make plenty of room for her contribution. There is a wondrous tension at play in the oppositional fields of male and female energies here. Bass swoops, glides, hollers, moans, and sings her way into the maelstrom of space. This is the finest live recording by the Art Ensemble, and documents the first tour of a legendary band that created new standards not only for improvisation but for performance as well. Now that Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors Maghostus have left this world, with this double LP, I want to remind listeners how enormous their accomplishments were.

Overall, this is an extremely interesting album for fans, but neophytes should check out a few other entries before coming here. If you do run into this first, moved toward it by some of its following, just remember that this is only one facet of a very talented band.

Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!

THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO – The Paris Session (2LP-1975)

Label: Arista – AL 1903, Freedom – AL 1903

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation / Country: US / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Polydor Studios (Dames II), Paris, 26th June 1969.

Design [Sleeve] – Hamish Grimes

Photography By – Jan Persson

Engineer – J. P. Dupuy, P. Quef

Liner Notes – John B. Litweiler

Producer – Alan Bates, Chris Whent

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched): AL 1903-SA

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched): AL 1903-SB

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched): AL 1903-SC

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched): AL 1903-SD

At the second LP (side C) the first track misspelled: "Joro", and correctly is "Toro".

Tracklist:

A  -  Tutankhamun ....................................................................................... 18:10

B1 - The Ninth Room .................................................................................. 15:35

B2 - That The Evening The Sky Fell Through The Glass

        Wall And We Stood Alone Somewhere? .............................................. 6:00

C1 - Toro ....................................................................................................... 8:25

C2 - Lori Song ............................................................................................... 3:53

C3 - Tthinitthedalen Part One ....................................................................... 4:24

C4 - Tthinitthedalen Part Two ....................................................................... 4:54

D  -  The Spiritual ........................................................................................ 20:00

Roscoe Mitchell – alto sax / soprano sax / bass sax, clarinet, flute,

                               whistle, siren, bells,    percussion

Lester Bowie – trumpet, flugelhorn, horns, drums [bass drum]

Joseph Jarman – alto sax / soprano sax / bass sax, clarinet, oboe, flute,

                            piano, harpsichord, guitar, percussion

Malachi Favors – bass, bass [Fender], banjo, sitar, percussion

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jazz styles and plays many instruments, including "little instruments": bells, bicycle horns, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and various forms of percussion. The musicians wear costumes and face paint while performing. These characteristics combine to make the ensemble's performances both aural and visual. While playing in Europe in 1969, five hundred instruments were used.

Members of what was to become the Art Ensemble performed together under various band names in the mid-sixties, releasing their first album, Sound, as the Roscoe Mitchell Sextet in 1966. The Sextet included saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, trumpeter Lester Bowie, and bassist Malachi Favors. For the next year, they played as the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble. In 1967, they were joined by fellow AACM members Joseph Jarman (saxophone) and Phillip Wilson (drums) and recorded for Nessa Records.

All of the musicians were multi-instrumentalists. Jarman and Mitchell's primary instruments were alto and tenor saxophone, respectively, but they played other saxophones (from the small sopranino to the large bass saxophone), and the flute and clarinet. In addition to trumpet, Bowie played flugelhorn, cornet, shofar, and conch shells. Favors added touches of banjo and bass guitar. Most of them dabbled in piano, synthesizer, and other keyboards.

In 1969, Wilson left the group to join Paul Butterfield's band. The remaining group travelled to Paris, where they became known as the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The impetus for the name change came from a French promoter who added "of Chicago" to their name for descriptive purposes, but the new name stuck because band members felt that it better reflected the cooperative nature of the group. In Paris, the ensemble was based at the Théâtre des Vieux Colombier and they recorded for the Freedom and BYG labels. They also recorded Comme à la radio with Brigitte Fontaine and Areski Belkacem but without a drummer until percussionist Don Moye became a member of the group in 1970.

The double album "The Paris Session" is a compilation of studio recordings from this period in Paris 1969 which were originally realized in two vinyl editions "Tutankhamun" and "The Spiritual" (both Freedom Records), plus material that was first released on this LP.

If you find it, buy this album!

ANTHONY BRAXTON – For Trio (LP-1978)

Label: Arista – AB-4181

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US/Canada / Released: 1978

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded on Sept. 22, 1977 at Streeterville Sound, Chicago, IL.

Art Direction – Howard Fritzson

Artwork [Front Cover Art], Photography By [Insert Photography] – Nickie Braxton

Engineer [Recording & Mixing Engineer] – Jim Dolan

Executive-Producer – Steve Backer

Mastered By – Bob Ludwig

Producer – Michael Cuscuna

A - Version I – Composition 76 ................................................ 20:22

      Anthony Braxton – piccolo flute, flute [C flute], soprano clarinet, soprano clarinet [B♭  clarinet], contra-alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone [E♭ soprano sax], alto saxophone, contrabass saxophone, performer [Tragata], gongs, percussion, little instruments

      Henry Threadgill – flute, flute [bass flute], alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, clarinet, performer [Hub "T" Wall], gongs, percussion, little instruments

      Douglas Ewart – piccolo flute, flute, soprano clarinet, soprano clarinet [B♭ clarinet],  bass clarinet, soprano saxophone [E♭ soprano sax, B♭ soprano sax], alto saxophone, bassoon, performer [Ewartphone], Gongs, percussion, little instruments

B - Version II – Composition 76 ................................................ 20:56

      Anthony Braxton – piccolo flute, flute [C flute], soprano clarinet, soprano clarinet [B♭  clarinet], contra-alto clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone [E♭ soprano sax], alto saxophone, contrabass saxophone, performer [Tragata], gongs, percussion, little instruments

      Joseph Jarman – flute, clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, vibraphone, Gongs, Percussion, little instruments

      Roscoe Mitchell – piccolo flute, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass saxophone, gongs, percussion, little instruments

Side A – Anthony Braxton (Middle) / Henry Threadgill (Right Channel) / Douglas Ewart (Left Channel)

Side B – Anthony Braxton (Middle) / Joseph Jarman (Right Channel) / Roscoe Mitchell (Left Channel)

Always one to try for something different, for this album Braxton organized two trios of well known avant-garde jazz musicians (he himself played in both groups) and recorded two side-long versions of the same composition, one of which has little to do with jazz, at least superficially. The piece, which is listed as "Composition 76" in the superb discography compiled by Francesco Martinelli (Bandecchi & Vivaldi Editore, 2000), is designed as a series of "routes" through a form, with agreed upon signposts along the way but with wide allowances for how the performers arrive there. These signposts include unison vocal refrains, staccato rhythmic lines and soft, sighing plaints from the horns. The extremely high caliber of the musicians which Braxton chose for this project guarantee some inspired playing and great imagination in working their way through this often forbidding territory. While admirers of his more jazz oriented work might find the music here daunting indeed, it repays careful listening and also strikes one as a seminal work that prefigures many of the concerns he would deal with later on in his collage-form structures written for his classic quartet of the '80s and '90s.

(Review by Brian Olewnick)

If you find it, buy this album!

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Old-Quartet / 1967 (LP-1975)

Label: Nessa Records – N-5

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

„Old“ recorded May 18, 1967, „Quartet Part ½“ recorded May 19, 1967.

„Solo“ recorded November 25, 1967.

Liner Notes [1975] – Larry Kart, Terry Martin

Producer – Chuck Nessa

Recorded By, Photography – Terry Martin

A1 - Old .............................................................. 8:09

A2 - Quartet Part 1 ............................................ 19:40

B1 - Quartet Part 2 ............................................ 18:03

B2 - Solo ............................................................. 5:34

Roscoe Mitchell – alto/soprano sax, clarinet, flute, performer little instruments

Lester Bowie – trumpet, flugelhorn, performer little instruments

Malachi Favors – bass, performer little instruments

Phillip Wilson – drums, percusson, others little instruments

In the mid to late 60s, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell was at the center of a group of young Chicago-based musicians who were extending the language of the free jazz revolution, until then largely a New York-based phenomenon. That was about to change. Mitchell led a quartet that also included trumpeter Lester Bowie, bassist Malachi Favors, and drummer Phillip Wilson. By the time the group made its first record. The style of this seminal ensemble was being defined when the rehearsal tapes that comprise Old/Quartet were made in 1967. Mitchell & Co. were not afraid to blow through the roof in the fiery style of their New York counterparts, but they also liked to reach back towards musical roots (“Old” is a 12-bar blues on which the traditional structure is respected, if not overmuch), as well as towards contemporary classical developments, or anywhere else that suited them. The tone can be passionate, ironic, whimsical, or sedate, sometimes all at the same time...

By Duck Baker

Recorded in the year prior to his groundbreaking Congliptious but not released until 1975, Old Quartet captures the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble (which would later coalesce into the Art Ensemble of Chicago) on a clear pathway toward the later album's majestic heights. In fact, it leads off with "Old," which closed the other album, and this performance is arguably superior both in its greater expansiveness and in Lester Bowie's incredibly poised trumpet work. That they slightly flub the ending (and joke about it) only adds to the relaxed air of the piece. "Quartet" is in two lengthy parts, and is a loose, somewhat rambling exploration that anticipates the title track from Congliptious less, perhaps, than it does Mitchell's quasi-narrative epic "The Spiritual" from two year later. The amount of freedom already at hand in 1967 is breathtaking, however. The group never meanders aimlessly; each little sound or moment of silence contributes to the flow. Vocal hums, whistles, harmonica tootles, and struck bells share equal footing with the more "traditional" instruments. Early on, Mitchell had realized that "free jazz" didn't only mean screaming at the top of one's lungs; there was room for quiet. The group would mature greatly over the next year, but all the seeds are clearly here. The album ends with a solo performance by Mitchell, augmenting his alto with bells, harmonica, and percussion. It's almost frightening how he's able to seesaw between delicate, music box-like melodies and the most harrowing slabs of sonic assault possible.

While perhaps a small step below Congliptious, it is nonetheless a beautiful album in its own right and one that ranks very high in Roscoe Mitchell's discography.

50 Years of AACM - Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

If you find it, buy this album!

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO – People In Sorrow (LP-1969)

Label: Nessa Records – N-3

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1969

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded at Boulogne-Billancourt, France, 7th of July, 1969.

Photos By – Terry Martin

Design By – Schoengrund

Pathe Marconi Recording

Distributed by – Flaying Fish Records

A - People In Sorrow Part 1 .................................. 17:05

B - People In Sorrow Part 2 .................................. 23:05

Roscoe Mitchell – soprano, alto, bass saxophone, clarinet, flute, percussion

Joseph Jarman – alto saxophone, bassoon, oboe, flute, percussion

Lester Bowie – trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion

Malachi Favors – bass, zither, percussion instruments

In 1969, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (which had recorded just one official record, Congliptious, as a group at that point in time), moved to Paris for two years and recorded eight albums during their first year overseas alone.

This is one of those albums that completely shifts thinking about music. The unity of vision on this album is uncanny, offering two sides of a slow, almost a-rhythmic flow of immensely sad sounds, coming from a variety of instruments played by Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman and Malachi Favors (this is still the period before Famadou Don Moye joined on drums). There is no real soloing, just sounds and phrases interwoven in a stream of music that is both welcoming and strange, with a beautiful theme that once every so often becomes explicit when it emerges out of the background on the first side, and becoming more dominant on the second side, guided by Lester Bowie's beautiful trumpet playing, over a background of increasing mayhem and ritual shouts and incantations and little percussive sounds and other tribal goodies. Even after all these years, modern listeners will be surprised at the audacity of the music, as much as for its listening relevance today, and hopefully as emotionally impacted as your servant when listening to this album, again and again.

This is an absolute must-have for any fan of free music. Please also note that the early albums of the Art Ensemble of Chicago explicitly mentioned AACM and/or "Great Black Music".

_ By Stef

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2015/05/50-years-of-aacm-1975-1984.html

50 Years of AACM - Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

If you find it, buy this album!

ROSCOE MITCHELL QUARTET – Roscoe Mitchell Quartet in concert at A Space (LP-1975)

Label: Sackville Recordings – 2009

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Canada / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded in concert at A Space, Toronto on the 4th and 5th of October 1975.

Photography By, Artwork – Bill Smith

Recorded By – Dan Allen

Produced by Onari Productions

Master tapes, Prepared By – Phil Sheridan

Composed By – Roscoe Mitchell (tracks: A1, B1, B2)

A1 - Tnoona ........................................................................... 6:42

A2 - Music For Trombone And B Flat Soprano .................... 14:35

        (Compiled By – George Lewis)

B1 - Cards ............................................................................ 10:00

B2 - Olobo .............................................................................. 9:42

Roscoe Mitchell – soprano B Flat / alto / tenor saxophones

Muhal Richard Abrams – piano

George Lewis – trombone

Spencer Barefield – guitar

The main dictum of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians was a self-reliant sense of Afrocentrism, and this notion of do-it-yourself ruggedness may even eclipse the pan-stylistics that are part of the AACM’s diverse aesthetics. Reedman and composer Roscoe Mitchell was one of the early members of the collective, which stemmed from pianist Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band. Mitchell’s 1960s small groups with figures like trumpeter Lester Bowie and bassist Malachi Favors eventually developed into the Art Ensemble of Chicago, with the addition of reedman Joseph Jarman and, later, drummer Famoudou Don Moye.

As a solo performer and bandleader outside of the AEC, Mitchell’s music has often presented itself singularly and somewhat severely – it’s not necessarily monolithic, but carved out in an objective, laid-bare fashion. Whether hard or delicately-latticed, Mitchell’s phrasing is materialist, but in a fashion that is transcendent and direct. That’s especially true in his solo work, but in group music the focus is expanded – one could always tell Mitchell’s pieces immediately apart from other works in the AEC canon, as they are frequently rooted in repetition and didactic clarity.

One particularly interesting ensemble that recorded under Mitchell’s leadership was a 1975 quartet featuring Abrams, trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Spencer Barefield, an otherwise undocumented unit drawing from the first and second waves of the AACM that set the stage for Mitchell’s later work with Detroiters Barefield, drummer Tani Tabbal and bassist Jaribu Shahid. Recorded live at Toronto’s A Space over two nights in October 1975, four tracks from these sessions made it onto an eponymous LP for Sackville Records, run by saxophonist, promoter and journalist Bill Smith.

This recording was the first appearance on record of George Lewis. He’d later record solo for Sackville, and his membership in Braxton’s and Barry Altschul’s groups would cement his status as one of the AACM’s most commanding improvisers and thinkers, and he’s given significant space here. “Music for Trombone and Bb Soprano” has the trombonist front and center for much of its fourteen-minute duration, Lewis’ commanding facility and garrulousness approaching both first-chair symphonic trombone and the expressive detail of someone like Roswell Rudd or Albert Mangelsdorff. As a professor, composer and theorist for whom the academy seems at first blush to have replaced the immediacy of performance, his playing here should serve as a not-so-gentle reminder of Lewis’ creative vibrancy. Mitchell may be slightly back in the mix at times, but his straight horn curls and darts around Lewis’ phrases with curious and shapely specificity, at other times purring and striking up against the trombonist’s blats. Their rapport is developed from equal parts aggressive interplay and comely partnership. “Olobo,” which closes the original LP, is in fact completely given over to Lewis’ unaccompanied playing and concentrates Mitchell-like on repeated cells that explode into paint-peeling shouts, multiphonics and measured density.

“Cards” is a piece that Mitchell has done for both small group and orchestra; each player is given six cards with musical notation that can be arranged by the player in any order and any tempo. Something of a “directed improvisation,” this early iteration of the piece is ruggedly pointillist, slushy brass and terse, acrid alto brays ricocheting off Abrams’ clusters and filigree. Barefield’s contributions include brief, folksy interludes and arcing, reverbed electricity. It’s hard to say who’s responsible for the occasional whirs of a power drill, but they provide Cageian levity to these sharp ten minutes.

Moment's Notice:

http://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD44/PoD44MoreMoments5.html

Listening to this exquisite LP is, without a doubt, demanding but it is also a rewarding and thrilling aural and intellectual ride.

50 Years of AACM - Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians

If you find it, buy this album!

WILDFLOWERS 5 – The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Douglas / LP5-1977)

Label: Douglas – NBLP 7049

Series: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions – 5

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded May 14 thru May 23, 1976 at Studio Rivbea, 24 Bond Street, New York.

Engineer [Assistant] – Les Kahn

Engineer [Chief] – Ron Saint Germain

Engineer [Remote Assistant] – Matt Murray

Executive-producer – Harley I. Lewin

Liner Notes – Ross Firestone

Mastered By – Ray Janos

Photography By – Peter Harron

Producer – Alan Douglas, Michael Cuscuna, Sam Rivers

A - Sunny Murray & The Untouchable Factor – Something's Cookin' ......... 17:00

       Alto Saxophone, Flute – Byard Lancaster

       Bass – Fred Hopkins

       Drums – Sunny Murray

       Tenor Saxophone – David Murray

       Vibraphone – Khan Jamal

B - Roscoe Mitchell – Chant ........................................................................ 25:19

       Alto Saxophone – Roscoe Mitchell

       Drums – Don Moye

       Percussion, Drums, Saw – Jerome Cooper

...Probably most representative document of loft jazz era was this five vinyl set "Wildflowers", recorded during May 1976 at Rivbea Studio and released on tiny Douglas Records in 1977. Decades after this release received almost cult status. Each of five albums contains collection of compositions recorded by different artists...

And in the end always comes delicacy, long mantra Roscoe Mitchell's "Chant" (an exercise in marathon circular breathing that walks the line between exhilarating and fantastic)—but at the same time houses a couple of the collection's most outstanding selections. 

The other highlight of the fifth vinyl, is the return of Sunny Murray and the Untouchable Factor for the 17-minute "Something's Cookin'". Beginning as a fragile web supported by Murray's cymbal whispers, the mood expands through the otherworldly plateaus spun by Jamal's vibes and a kinetic tenor/alto dialogue between Murray and Lancaster—only to finish on the spiritual edge where Hopkins' bowed levitations meet Lancaster's primordial flute... oh yes...

No self-respecting listener of free jazz should go without hearing these sessions, as they document a period in the music's history that, until now, has been severely neglected.

But, and this is very important:

The psychedelic colors of the record cover jumped out to me immediately. I loved the album art - a collage of jazz greats fronting a backdrop of New York City. It was so different...

Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!

ROSCOE MITCHELL – L-R-G / The Maze / S II Examples (2LP-1978)

Label: Nessa Records – N-14/15

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1978

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

A/B - "L-R-G" recorded August 7, 1978, at Van Gelder Recording Studio.

C - "The Maze" recorded July 27, 1978, at Columbia Studios.

D - "S II Examples" recorded August 17, 1978, at Streetville Studios.

Artwork – Arnold A. Martin

Composed By – Roscoe Mitchell

Photography By – Ann Nessa

Producer – Chuck Nessa

A  -  L-R-G (Part One) .......... 18:49

B  -  L-R-G (Part Two) .......... 17:40

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Piccolo Flute, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Bass Saxophone

LEO SMITH – Trumpet, Trumpet [Pocket Trumpet], Flugelhorn

GEORGE LEWIS – Tuba [Wagner Tuba], Sousaphone, Trombone [Alto], Trombone [Tenor]

(Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder)

C  -  The Maze ..........20:40

JOSEPH JARMAN – Bells, Xylophone [Balafon], Horns [Bike Horns, Conch Shell], Cymbal [Cymbal, Chinese, Cymbal Rack], Congas [Drums], Bells [Hand Bells], Drums, Gong, Marimba, Percussion [Tom Tom], Vibraphone, Gong [Temple Gong]

ANTHONY BRAXTON – Drums [Bass, Snare], Cymbal, Glockenspiel, Percussion [Garbage Can Machine, Sloshing Can Machine, Wash Tub], Marimba [Marimba, Marimba Can Machine], Bells [Orchestra Bells], Xylophone

MALACHI FAVORS – Drums [Log Drum], Gong, Xylophone [Balafon], Percussion [Cans], Bells [Hand Bells], Shaker, Horns [Seal Horn], Tambourine, Gong [Temple Gong], Zither

THURMAN BARKER – Drums, Cowbell, Congas [Conga Drum], Gong, Glockenspiel, Bells [Hand Bells], Marimba, Slapstick, Triangle, Whistle

DON MOYE – Drums, Xylophone [Balafon], Cowbell, Congas [Drums], Cymbal [Cymbal Rack], Gong [Gong, Temple Gong], Bells [Hand Bells], Horns [Little Horns], Marimba, Triangle, Percussion [Wood Blocks]

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Glockenspiel [Buggle], Horns [Bicycle], Xylophone [Balafon], Cowbell [Cowbells, Swiss Cowbells, Swinging Swiss Cowbells], Cymbal [Cymbal, Finger Cymbal, Tuned Cymbals, Zizzle Cymbals], Congas [Drum], Percussion [Cycle Sprocket, Dinner Chimes, Frying Pans, Thunder Sheet, Temple Blocks, Wood Blocks, Wood Desk], Gong, Bells [Dome Bell, Hanging Bell, Large Swinging Bell, Swinging Bells], Horns [Press Horn], Triangle

HENRY THREADGILL – Gong [Gong, Cymbal Gongs], Cymbal [Finger Cymbal], Percussion [Garbage Can Bottoms, Hubkaphone, Rhythm Sticks], Bells [Hand Bells], Brass [Plumbing Brass], Dulcimer

DOUGLAS EWART – Percussion [Bamboo Table], Cymbal [Cymbal, Zizzle Cymbal], Cowbell [Cowbells, Wooden], Glockenspiel [Large, Small], Bells [Door Bell, Hanging Bells, Little Bells, Winding Bell], Gong, Marimba, Xylophone [Metal]

(Engineer – Don Puluse)

D  -  S II Examples .......... 17:15

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Soprano Saxophone

(Engineer – Mark Rubenstein)

Roscoe Mitchell is mostly, and rightly, reckoned with his work as a leading member of the hardscrabble, meta-instrumental, and enormously influential avant-garde jazz group Art Ensemble of Chicago. However, Mitchell also owns a considerable stake in composed music of a kind considerable as classical, which makes use of written materials to drive determinate kinds of improvisation, or even some non-improvised interpretation in the conventional sense. Mitchell's serious work in so-called "serious music" was recognized at the academic level in 2007, when Mitchell was named to the Darius Milhaud Chair of composition at Mills College in Oakland, and many writers date Mitchell's shift of focus to the 1990s when he began to work with such non-jazz, creative musicians as classically trained vocalist Thomas Buckner. However, for Mitchell, contact with classical music disciplines goes back to his very early days as a student in Germany. Nessa's LP Roscoe Mitchell/L-R-G, The Maze, S II Examples documents a period in 1978, when Mitchell was beginning to work on his composed strategies with usual suspect figures from the jazz world, some from the Art Ensemble itself.

In 1978, Michigan-based indie Nessa Records had almost exclusive access to Mitchell and his associates, as the Art Ensemble of Chicago had barely begun its association with ECM -- the first fruits of which did not appear until 1979 -- and the group was reaching the end of a five-year hiatus that also witnessed the collapse of some of the labels it recorded for. The Maze brings the entire Art Ensemble membership, minus Lester Bowie, and other free jazz luminaries such as Anthony Braxton and Henry Threadgill, to serve as percussionists. Rather than being a rattletrap barrage of percussion as one might expect, The Maze is a carefully controlled polyphonic texture of percussion sounds that is mostly vertical and moves forward in a deliberate progression. The quality of the sound in this 1978 recording is astounding, made at the 30th Street Studio belonging to CBS Records. L-R-G (i.e., "L"eo Smith, "R"oscoe Mitchell, and "G"eorge Lewis), brings this high-powered trio of improvisers into contact with an orchestra's wealth of instruments, divided by range and type: woodwinds for Mitchell, high and low brass, respectively, for Smith and Lewis. Like The Maze, this is a slowly forward-evolving catalog of special sounds; however, in this case the sounds are specific to the players involved. S II Examples, likewise, began as a trio for soprano saxophones for Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, and Anthony Braxton, but Mitchell realized his curved soprano provided him with some additional flexibility that the straight saxes favored and the others did not. So he decided to record it as a solo piece, and it is an extraordinary one; Mitchell's microcosmic understanding of gradations of tone is virtually encyclopedic, and the amount of wiggle room he has between two half steps is such that when he plays three or four "regular" notes by way of transition, it's an event.

In a superficial sense, Nessa's LP Roscoe Mitchell/L-R-G, The Maze, S II Examples does not represent a radical departure from Mitchell's work as a jazz musician, as does, say, Skies of America does for Ornette Coleman; those who follow Mitchell's work in jazz will well recognize him in comfortable voice here. Nevertheless, for listeners attuned to contemporary art music coming to Roscoe Mitchell with little or no knowledge of his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago should likewise easily understand how his rigorous approach in organizing improvised elements fits in with the rest of the classical avant-garde. Beyond that, Nessa's vinyl Roscoe Mitchell/L-R-G, The Maze, S II Examples is a splendidly recorded, and inasmuch as Roscoe Mitchell as classical composer is concerned, this is very close to where it truly starts.

Review by Uncle Dave Lewis

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DAVE BURRELL – After Love (LP-1970)

Label: America Records – 067 867-2

Series: Free America – #07

Format: CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Limited Edition - Released: 2004

Style: Free Jazz

Recording Date: 1970, Paris, France.

Art Direction, Design, Painting – Gilles Guerlet, Jérôme Witz

Photography By [Paintings] – Fredéric Thomas

Producer [For America-musidisc] – Pierre Berjot

Reissue Producer [Prepared For Reissue By] – Bruno Guermonprez

Supervised By [Reissue] – Daniel Richard

Transferred By [Transfers], Mastered By [Mastering] – Alexis Frenkel

Part of the reissue series of recordings from the French America label, this CD cleans up the sound from the original's horrible French pressing c. 1970 and holds up 44 years later as one of the best recordings of the free jazz diasporic period.

01 After Love Part 1 “Questions and Answers” (D. Burrell) . . . 21:42

02 After Love Part 2 “Random” (D. Burrell) . . . 7:03

03 My March (D. Burrell) . . . 22:03

Dave Burrell, leader, piano

Alan Silva, amplified cello, violin

Ron Miller, mandolin, bass (track 1)

Don Moye, drums

Bertrand Gauthier, drums (track 1)

Roscoe Mitchell, reeds

Michel Gladieux, bass (track 3)

When, in 1969, a young journalist named Paul Alessandrini proposed a series of “exspress Portraits” to Jean-Louis Ginibre, Chief Editor of “Jazz Magazine”, to be published under the title “The New Heads of the New Music”, Dave Burrell, aged 29, was probably the most discreet and apparently the most “serious” (no doubt because he wore glasses!) of the eleven musicians chosen. Musically - he’d already produced some phonographic evidence - this pianist was neither the least ‘turbulent’ nor, literally, the least iconoclastic. This was reason enough for him to have been selected among the whole ‘bunch’ of freejazzmen who’d just landed in Paris from New York and Chicago, and who immediately scattered throughout the capital’s studios and jazz clubs (not to mention other spaces, sometimes institutions, which had never heard as much…). A few jazz fans, and also professionals who were novices where ‘new jazz’ was concerned, but were excited by the scent of surprise inherent in this music, undertook the financial risks; after all, wasn’t their aim to sell this music that seemed to turn its back on most of the commercial criteria reigning over the music business? As for Burrell (no relation to guitarist Kenny Burrell, nor the New Orleans pianist Duke Burrell), if his biography remains extremely concise (are lucky musicians those without a story?), at least Alessandrini informed us that he ‘was born on September 10th, 1940 in Middletown, Ohio of parents originating in Mississippi and Louisiana. When he was still a child he lived in a musical atmosphere: his mother played piano and organ, and sang spirituals in a Baptist Church (Note: Baptist religious services were the most propitious in terms of musical paroxysms and collective trance phenomenal. His father, a union man, defended black workers rights. For four years he studied music at Berklee School of Music and at the Boston Conservatory, then for two years at the University of Hawaii.  He lived in the heart of the Black ghetto, in Cleveland and Harlem, while making frequent trips to the ‘paradise’ of Hawaii.  He recorded with Giuseppi Logan, Marion Brown (Juba-Lee, Three for Shepp). Pharoah Sanders (still spelt ‘Pharaoh’ at the time), (Tauhid), then under his own name for Douglas (High). Deeply marked by his recent stay in Algiers, he’s just recorded two compositions conceived over there, under the general title of ‘Echo’: with himself leading, there are Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur, III , Sunny Murray, etc’ (In ‘Jazz magazine’ No. 171, October 1969). We would later learn that his name was actually Herman Davis Burrell III: that is was his mother who initiated him to jazz: that in Boston he sometimes played with the very young drummer Tony Williams and saxophonist Sam Rivers (two indispensable pioneers who later appeared in the Blue Note catalogue and then alongside Miles Davis); that in 1965, in New York, he’d formed the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team with Byard Lancaster (reeds), Sirone (bass), and Bobby Kapp (drums); that three years later with Moncur (trombone) and drummer Beaver Harris, he’d created a musical variable-geometry collective, the 360 Degree Music Experience, with the motto: ‘from ragtime to no time at all.” Such a stance of absolute openness is something that would cross the pianist composer’s entire output, from prime percussion to Giaccomo Puccini (he was indeed to tackle a re-reading of some of the great arias from ‘La Vie De Boheme’) with amongst other decisive moments, his sole physical contact with the African continent during the Algiers Pan-African festival. Like other pianist-composers, notably Sun Ra and Jaki Byard , Dave Burrell invented an approach for himself  which might be superficially qualified as ‘plural’, indeed ‘schizophrenic. Classical, traditional here, and unbridled, ‘free’ there… Like a kind of  Dr. Jekyll  & Mr. Hyde.  In fact, here as there (and as in Stevenson’s novel), it’s a question of one and the same being, the same ‘soul’, ensuring the indisputable continuity of this apparent stylistic patchwork. The continuum of which saxophonist Archie Shepp spoke not long ago, that Great Black Music returning to the words of the musicians in Chicago’s A.A.C.M. (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), or again in all the music that exists, in the phrase of the Philadelphian Byard Lancaster, between ‘Sex machine (James brown) and ‘A Love Supreme’ (John Coltrane): such is the profound unity of the Burrell universe with, obviously, a whole range of singularities, ‘distinctive features’ with a juxtaposition and mingling of his taste for classical forms and virtuosities, notably with the piano’s African-American pioneers (ragtime, stride, boogie…), or, as in this ‘After Love’ for a March tempo that’s distended and distorted to anamorphosis and verbal explosions. This reminds us that these were joyous militant years, and that forbidding was still forbidden - even to mix the sounds of an electric cello, or a violin and a mandolin, to associate a multi-blower from Chicago (and The Art Ensemble’ Of…) Roscoe Mitchell, the Art Ensemble’s percussionist (Don Moye), a former partner of Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra (Alan Silva) with young Parisian rhythmicians (Michel Gladieux, who was part of the Dharma quintet, and Bertrand Gauthier, who dropped his sticks in favour of a camera), and therefore to play-enjoy without hindrance. Who mentioned nostalgia? It’s just a moment in history.

_ By Phillippe Carles

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GRACHAN MONCUR III – Aco Dei De Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early) / New Africa (2LP-1971)

Label: BYG Records – 529.205

Series: Double Actuel – 205

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation; Country: France - Released: 1971

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A/B - Recorded In Paris 11. August 1969

Side C/D - Recorded In Paris 04. November 1969

Executive-producer – Claude Delcloo

Producer – Jean Georgakarakos, Jean-Luc Young

Two seminal sessions from avant soul trombonist Grachan Moncur III. Beautiful recordings.

New Africa (1969)

A1 - New Africa . . . 17:30

        1st Movement: Queen Tamam  

        2nd Movement: New Africa    

        3rd Movement: Black Call       

        4th Movement: Ethiopian Market        

A2 - Space Spy . . . 6:55

B1 - Exploration . . . 10:45

B2 - When . . . 12:00

        Grachan Moncur III – trombone

        Roscoe Mitchell – alto saxophone, saxophone [piccolo]

        Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone (track: B2)

        Dave Burrell – piano

        Alan Silva – contrabass

        Andrew Cyrille – drums, percussion

Aco Dei De Madrugada (One Morning I Waked Up Very Early) - 1969

C1 - Aco Dei De Madrugada (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 7:02

C2 - Ponte Io (Traditional Bresilian) . . . 6:46

D1 - Osmosis . . . 9:25

D2 - Tiny Temper . . . 5:28

        Grachan Moncur III – trombone

        Fernando Martins – piano, vocals

        Beb  Guérin – contrabass

        Nelson Serra De Castro – drums, percussion

 Grachan Moncur III

In 1969 Grachan Moncur III - jazz trombonist and composer - recorded two albums for the legendary French free jazz record label BYG: "New Africa" and "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)".

Moncur had come to France via Algiers, where he had played at the First Pan-African Cultural Festival. This Festival, which focused on Black African ethnic identity politics, had been held in Algeria from the 21st of July to the 1st of August 1969 by the new-fled Organization of African Unity. Moncur had come to the Festival together with Archie Shepp, with whom he had been playing since 1967 (i.a. on 'Life At The Donaueschingen Music Festival' and 'The Way Ahead') and with whom he would remain closely associated in further years (on 'Things Have Got To Change' and 'Kwanza'). Besides Moncur, Shepp brought with him cornet player Clifton Thornton, pianist Dave Burrell, bass player Alan Silva, and avant drummer Sunny Murray.

At the Festival, the whole group was invited to record in Paris by BYG Actuel's Jean Georgakarakos and Jean-Luc Young, and record they did: in a very short time span, working in ever-changing constellations, they created scores of beautiful free jazz records. "New Africa" was recorded on august 11th 1969, only ten days after the end of the Festival; "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)" was recorded only a little later, on september 10th and november 4th 1969.

But the jazz corpus created by those invited to record by BYG Actuel - though one of the most enticing on record - was marred by greed: to this day, BYG's mainmen Bisceglia, Young and Georgakarakos have apparently not paid any royalties to the artists involved. The financial problems this created for Moncur initiated a downward spiral, which was worsened by health problems. The result was that Moncur was able to record only rarely after the early 1970's, apparently became quite depressed, and didn't even merit a personal entry in the 7th (2004) edition of "The Pinguin Guide To Jazz On CD".

It is ironic that where a Festival (the First Pan-African Cultural Festival) provided the main impetus for BYG Records, another festival proved to be it's undoing. BYG Records organized a festival together with the countercultural magazine Actuel called 'Le Festival Actuel'. It was planned to take place from October 24th to 27th 1969 in Paris. However, the French authorities denied the organizers the necessary permits, fearing that either a Woodstock-like chaos or a repetition of the may 1968 student riots might ensue. This forced the organizers to move the entire Festival at a very late stage to Belgium, to a place called Amougies (or Amengijs in Flemish) which is near the French-Belgium border. The Festival had a very ambitious line-up, featuring Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Soft Machine and Ten Years After. Also, much of BYG Records roster of Free Jazz performers participated; Grachan Moncur III appeared on Saturday night, together with Don Cherry, saxophonist Arthur Jones and pianist Joachim Kurt Kuhn. Frank Zappa was master of ceremonies at the Festival. Though an audience of 15-20,000 attended the Festival, the financial strain it caused was too much of a burden for BYG Records, which finally went bankrupt in the early seventies.

Bisceglia went on to become a Jazz photographer; Jean Georgakarakos founded Celluloid Records; and Jean-Luc Young founded the record label Charly Records in France in 1974 and moved operations to England in 1975. Living up to his reputation for shady deals, Young ran into legal trouble due to copyright infringement in 2000 while still working for Charly Records.

The trombone - Moncur's instrument - has held a particular fascination for me ever since I saw drone metal band Earth perform live, Steve Moore - who has roots in Free Jazz - providing beautiful trombone gravitas to Earth's haunted Americana. But Moncur's trombone playing is light years removed from Moore's drones: his style is firmly rooted in Jazz tradition.

Moncur's music is not Free Jazz of the chaotic and noisy, Merzbow kind; and it is also devoid of the cheap quasi-mystical exoticism which can spoil Indian/Jazz-fusion-type Free Jazz. Notwithstanding the influence of Shepp's ethnopolitical protest music, both albums present a rather lyrical style of Free Jazz, elegant rather than intransigent, poetic rather than acerbic, a mélange rather than a hotchpotch. Moncur comes across as a good-natured progressive who chooses to explore both the heartlands and the borders of the Jazz tradition, rather than as a revolutionary firebrand who aims to scorch the earth of that tradition.

But that does not mean that Moncur's music lacks passion - on the contrary!

'New Africa' features Roscoe Mitchell (alto sax), Dave Burrell (piano), Alan Silva (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums). It opens with the eponymous seventeen-and-a-half minute suite, which consists of four movements. Over the course of these movements, the relaxed, steady bass work by Silva binds together the energetic performances of the other musicians. The drums and the piano on the one hand and the sax and the trombone on the other maneuver around each other in benevolent aerobatic dog-fights. In 'Space Spy' Dave Burrell provides a suspenseful piano tune that gives the track a tense feel appropriate to it's title: that of a Free Jazz afro-futurist espionage thriller. The third track ('Exploration') is the 'Free-est' of all. It is thoroughly informed by Alan Silva's musical style: spiritually ecstatic, with an interplay of instruments that is as writhing as a mass of Cthulhoid tentacles. Archie Shepp appears on the fourth and final track of 'New Africa', where a self-confident (but never swaggering) swing provides the two musicians with a theater stage on which to perform their powerful art.

I'm also very fond of the second part of this double LP, the album "One Morning I Woke Up Very Early (Aco Dei De Madrugada)". It was recorded after 'Le Festival Actuel'. This album presents two songs which are interpretations of Brazilian traditionals: "Aco Dei De Madrugada" and "Ponte Lo"; and two originals: "Osmosis" and "Tiny Temper". On this recording, Moncur was assisted by French bass player Beb Guérin, Brazilian pianist Fernando Martins and Brazilian drummer Nelson Serra De Castro. More laid-back than 'New Africa', the Latin influence gives his music an immensely graceful swing. - Enjoy!

_ Text: Documents, By Valter

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