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
If
you find it, buy this album!
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