The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an Avant Garde free jazz and arts collective that has been making music and performing since the 1960s. In addition to using instruments both traditional, modern and invented with some performances utilizing at least 500 different instruments and noise makers
#LaEsoterica #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #Jazz
Next we have our second feature presentation: A live set by the avant-garde free jazz collective The Art Ensemble of Chicago at the 1970 Festival de Jazz de Châteauvallon (https://youtu.be/gUUfu4lTdL8?si=mh8J-dc0MuFSGn6h) I don’t’ want to say too much goin into this so just sit back and experience this.
#LaEsoterica #ArtEnsembleOfChicago #Jazz

Sound is the debut album by free jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, recorded in 1966 and released on the Delmark label. It features performances by Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, Maurice McIntyre, Lester Lashley and Alvin Fielder.

... Wadada Leo Smith commented: "It's no accident that Roscoe called that important piece of his Sound. Sound - not pitch - that's the difference." According to Mitchell, "[t]he musicians are free to make any sound they think will do, any sound that they hear at a particular time. That could be like somebody who felt like stomping on the floor... well, he would stomp on the floor..." - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLq2jx8oSbE&list=RDRLq2jx8oSbE&start_radio=1

#RoscoeMitchell #LesterBowie #MalachiFavors #ArtEnsembleofChicago #FreeJazz #Delmark #Music #Jazz #AlvinFielder #AACM

New Africa is an album by American trombonist Grachan Moncur III recorded in 1969 and released on the BYG Actuel label in the same year. It features alto saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell (Art Ensemble of Chicago), pianist Dave Burrell, bassist Alan Silva and drummer Andrew Cyrille. Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp performs on the final track.

A reviewer of Dusty Groove wrote: "Excellent work from trombonist Grachan Moncur III – famous for his 60s work on Blue Note and with Archie Shepp, sounding as great here as he did on those recordings! The session features Moncur hitting an Archie Shepp-ish, spiritual vein in his playing..." - Wikipedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkU54RExUk0&list=RDgkU54RExUk0&start_radio=1

#GrachanMoncurIII #RoscoeMitchell #DaveBurrell #AlanSilva #AndrewCyrille #ArchieShepp #Jazz #FreeJazz #Music #BYGActuel #TheNewThing #JazzTrombone #ArtEnsembleofChicago

Art Ensemble Of Chicago | Cecil Taylor ‎– Thelonious Sphere Monk [Full Album]

YouTube

Universal Sounds of America Review by Thom Jurek

..Numerous cuts here employ the word "space" in their titles and one references it directly. Belgrave, Reid, Morris and the Art Ensemble all had titles reissued on the Universal Sound label (and Reid recorded afresh for Soul Jazz). While the focus here is on the diversity of, to borrow a term from the AEC, "Great Black Music Ancient to the Future," it is deeply rooted in '70s out jazz, with only Belgrave and Morris providing deeper, wider visions. Morris' ..."Kitty Bey" replies on modal jazz and Latin rhythms to get his killer track across. Likewise, Sanders uses an electric piano to position himself in space on the gorgeous "Astral Traveling," and Belgrave take nearly ten with his "Space Odyssey," that reflects on funk, electronic abstraction and Detroit soul-jazz to get his rather elegant point across.."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOVV4_XiHiA&list=PLzzuRbmk8Am8pa36dWKgO4pgw9aAxYPC8&index=5

#freejazz #souljazz #ArtEnsembleofChicago #sunra #spaceistheplace #byronmorris #stevereid

Byron Morris & Unity - Kitty Bey

YouTube

Les Stances a Sophie is a 1970 soundtrack album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in Paris for a French film of the same name directed by Moshé Mizrahi. It was released on the Pathé Marconi label in France and on Nessa Records in the U.S. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Fontella Bass and Don Moye. Moshé Mizrahi commissioned the original music for the film when the band had only two weeks left on their French visas.

Rolling Stone writer Robert Palmer observed: "Sophie is a film score and the group essays bop, free music, a neo-dixieland and pounding R&B. There are saxophone solos by Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell, solid walking from bassist Malachi Favors, aggressive percussion from Don Moye and a searing Fontella Bass vocal."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmN9rkVfsmo

#ArtEnsembleofChicago #freejazz #josephjarman #roscoemitchell #lesstancesasophie #donmoye #lesterbowie

Art Ensemble Of Chicago - Les Stances à Sophie (1970) [full album]

YouTube

Tonight's film is Les stances à Sophie aka Sophie’s Ways from 1971.

I have known the soundtrack by the Art Ensemble of Chicago for over 30 years, and tonight I finally get to see the film!

https://letterboxd.com/film/sophies-ways/

#LesstancesàSophie #Frenchfilm #ArtEnsembleofChicago #MoshéMizrahi

Sophie's Ways (1971)

Céline is a free-spirited woman is married to a dull, middle manager Philippe. Her husband's co-worker pegged her as a household ornament because of the union. She befriends a woman who shows her how to juggle the couple's living expenses to get what she wants. As she asserts her independence and gradually frees herself from her husband's claustrophobic world, she turns to painting and writing about the inequity between genders.

Tribute to Lester - ECM Records

When AEC trumpeter Lester Bowie died in November 1999 at the age of 58, the jazz world lost one of its great originals –­ a flamboyant sound-painter, a great soloist, a musical philosopher, and a charismatic performer. On this memorial album his friends and colleagues give a sense of his freewheeling, larger-than-life character. Powerful and […]

ECM Records