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!

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 – 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

If you find it, buy this album!

ROSCOE MITCHELL – Nonaah (2LP-1977)

Label: Nessa Records – N-9/10
Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US - Released: 1977
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A and B1, B2 recorded live on 23 August 1976 in Willisau, Switzerland (solo concert).
B3, C1 recorded on 17 January 1977 in Chicago, IL.
B4, D1 recorded on 22 February 1977 in Chicago, IL.
C2 recorded live on 15 January 1977 at Mapenzi, Berkeley, CA (solo concert).
D2 recorded on 22 January 1977 in Chicago, IL.

Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Roscoe Mitchell
Design – Arnold A. Martin
Liner Notes – Chuck Nessa, Terry Martin
Photography By [Cover] – Roberto Masotti
Producer – Chuck Nessa
Recorded By [Berkeley] – Roscoe Mitchell
Recorded By [Chicago] – Stu Black
Recorded By [Willisau] – Walter Troxler

"Nonaah is extraordinarily confrontational music--it presents instrument, composer and materials in a profoundly naked light. Perhaps more important than opening up one's preconceptions about the saxophone, it also complicates the AACM aesthetic."

One of the significant things that set AACM music apart from its brethren in New York in the 1960s and early 1970s was its use of space, of opening up the music so that things could occur within broad, environmental relationships. That sense of space was very important. In an entirely different take on "energy" music, the challenge of discerning what could be perceived as multiple, self-contained orbits was uniquely gratifying. To listeners weaned on the intervallic leaps of reed player Eric Dolphy and the ringing "wrong" notes of pianist Thelonious Monk, and the areas of quietude and vastness made perfect sense in the early music of reed players Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton.

On first hearing, Mitchell's Nonaah turns the perceived spaciousness of AACM-music on its end. Gone are the silences punctuated by little instruments or brief, anguished saxophone squalls that seemed to recoil as quickly as they appeared. Nonaah was something else entirely, an exorcism of the alto saxophone as much as putting the instrument through its paces. Released in 1977 on Nessa Records as part of a continual and tireless documentation of the music of the AACM, starting with Lester Bowie's Numbers 1 & 2 (Nessa, 1967), Nonaah consisted of a double vinyl set including solo alto saxophone, a saxophone quartet, duos with saxophonist Anthony Braxton and bassist Malachi Favors, and a trio with pianist Muhal Richard Abrams and trombonist George Lewis.

"Nonaah" itself is represented in both solo and quartet versions. The solo, which opens disc one, comes from a 1976 Wilisau concert, and lasts just over a half hour (including eight minutes of the Joseph Jarman composition "Ericka"). The title piece was previously referenced on the Art Ensemble of Chicago's Bap-tizum (Atlantic, 1972) and Mitchell's Solo Saxophone Concerts (Sackville, 1973), but this is its fullest explication. The piece begins with a jagged eight-note phrase, with its last note being held in gradually longer intervals. Each attack of the phrase itself becomes more distorted, each repetition goading the audience into a mixture of cheers and guffaws at some of the most naked saxophone playing they'd probably ever heard. At about five minutes in, the held tone becomes smeared, bent, and torqued; Mitchell begins rushing the phrase and the key becomes ambiguous. It is a furious troweling of hard ground—of forcing a very contained phrase into malleability and to either give up its fruits or die trying.

At nine minutes, Mitchell has exhausted this phrase, torqued it into recognizable but worked- over fragments. Here he moves on to the form of a plaintive ballad, running his keyed, reeded fingers over a delicate line, an insect with feelers for sound. Seemingly trepid, the intervals he's working with are incredibly vast, from low, velvety purrs to high-pitched, rounded pops. The next movement is faster, harsher and high-volume, buzzing and metallic. It seems to cull its language from both the original theme and the ballad portion, and is resoundingly physical—one can feel Mitchell's body contorting along with the phrases he's building up and tearing apart. One wants to say this is staunchly avant-garde music, and it is, but it's not without the trilled leaps of saxophonists Charlie Parker and Lester Young, the smoky, crushed fabric of a swing player, or the searing honk of R&B.

Jarman's staple "Ericka" is a ballad of extraordinary depth and beauty; Mitchell approaches it with warmth, stateliness and whimsy. His solo is full of curlicues, lines rushing down the staircase, and blurs in which notes pop out like flickers of light. By the end of the piece, Mitchell has found his way to clenched air and popping veins, energy being bottled and trying to escape both at once.

In January of 1977, Mitchell brought saxophonists Jarman, Wallace McMillan and Henry Threadgill together for a seventeen-minute saxophone quartet recording of the title piece. As the final work on the original double album, it marked an expanded exploration of the materials on side one. Operating at what appear to be slightly different intervals, the first movement is rendered like a rickety string quartet, clearly intertwined but operating with a logic that's distressingly internal. There's a bounce to it akin to a Steve Lacy piece gone horribly awry or a player piano stuck on repeat. The second section sounds lush, reminscent of Duke Ellington in its colorful expanse and woody timbres (you could almost swear there are a cello and violin present). Delicate measures and caressed intervals become brilliant orchestral floes, hints of saxophonist Johnny Hodges bringing the section to a unison close. To hear the contrasts between pointillist, scrabbling jounce and tone poem is something more pronounced in the quartet, proof (as if one needs it) of an excavating process leading to a compositional plenum.

Nonaah is extraordinarily confrontational music—it presents instrument, composer and materials in a profoundly naked light. Perhaps more important than opening up one's preconceptions about the saxophone, it also complicates the AACM aesthetic and vision. Rather than providing space, this is incredibly dense music, bristling with tension that is not overcome by ecstatic release. Nonaah is about as direct as one can get and, lest one forget, the music of Mitchell, Abrams, Jarman, Braxton and their cohorts is rebellious to this day.

_ By CLIFFORD ALLEN, Published: September 28, 2008 (AAJ)



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MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS featuring MALACHI FAVORS – Sightsong (LP-1976)

Label: Black Saint – BSR 0003
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Italy - Released: 1976
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Generation Sound Studios, New York on October 13-14, 1975.
Engineer – Tony May
Producer – Giacomo Pellicciotti
All songs written by Muhal Richard Abrams except "Way Way Way Down Yonder" (Malachi Favors).

A fantastic record – and one of the warmest, most soulful sets we've ever heard from Muhal Richard Abrams! The album features Muhal's piano alongside the bass of Malachi Favors – a really unique duo outing that unlocks a whole new side of both players, especially Favors, who really seems to have a presence here that's different than usual – a bubbling, effervescent sense of soul that really buoys up the whole record, and helps Abrams hit these beautifully lyrical tones on the piano. We can't recommend this one highly enough, and the tracks include "W.W. (Dedicated to Wilbur Ware)", "JG", "Way Way Way Down Yonder", "Unity", and "Two Over One". _(Dusty Groove, Inc.)

"The reputation of members of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), of which Abrams is a founding member, has long been one of adventurous, dangerous, and difficult music. But in fact, much of the music created out of this organization shows enormous appreciation of the blues and earlier jazz forms. Sightsong is a splendid case in point. The album opens with four duets (two dedicated to Chicago legends Wilbur Ware and Johnny Griffin) which have a swing, a groove, and a delicacy that no fan of "straight- ahead" jazz could ignore. Favors, always one of the great underrated bassists in the music, provides a thick, soulful pulse and solos with huge imagination while Abrams always stays within the song's parameters which provide ample room for his creativity. As fine as these more "traditional" numbers are, the standout piece is perhaps Favors' solo feature, the wonderfully titled "Way Way Way Down Yonder." Opening with what sounds like the riffled pages of a book, Favors then states the deep, bluesy theme with strutting authority and proceeds through one of the richest investigations of the string bass the listener is ever likely to hear. Sightsong is one of Abrams's finest recordings and is also perhaps the best showcase for Malachi Favors' talents outside of his seminal work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago."

_ By BRIAN OLEWNICK (AllMusic.com)



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DENNIS GONZALEZ NEW DALLASORLEANSSIPPI – Debenge-Debenge (1988)

for Steve

Label: Silkheart – SHCD 112
Format: CD, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1988
Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Tracks 4,5 are CD bonuses.
Recorded February 12 and February 11 (DEBENGE-DEBENGE), 1988, at Omega Audio, Dallas, Texas and (DEBENGE-DEBENGE) at D'Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas.
Engineer – Paul Christensen
Executive Producer [For Silkheart Records] – Keith Knox, Mellifer AB

Personnel:
Henry Franklin, Malachi Favors – bass
Alvin Fielder, W.A. Richardson – drums
Edward 'Kidd' Jordan – sopranino saxophone, alto saxophone, bass clarinet
Charles Brackeen – tenor saxophone
Marlon Jordan – trumpet
Dennis González – trumpet, trumpet [C trumpet, pocket trumpet]


"It really is very hard (in the sense of unfair) to pick individuals from the evidently collective inspiration. However, Charles Brackeen is superb – as well he might be on his own charts. Dennis Gonzalez's Debenge-Debenge has a masterly coherence and an impressive consistency. It's a powerful and convincing statement from one of the most committed and interesting of contemporary players and bids fair to become one of the more important – as well as enjoyable – albums of the year."

_ Brian Morton, The Wire, March 1989



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