Art Ensemble of Chicago
| Art Ensemble of Chicago | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kongsberg Jazz Festival, 2017 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Avant-garde jazz , modern creative |
| founding | 1967 |
| Website | www.artensembleofchicago.com |
| Founding members | |
| Roscoe Mitchell | |
Reeds |
Joseph Jarman (until 1993, then between 2003 and 2006) |
| Lester Bowie (until 1999) † | |
| Malachi Favors (until 2004) † | |
| Phillip Wilson (until 1969) | |
| Current occupation | |
Reeds |
Roscoe Mitchell |
Trumpet |
Hugh Ragin (since 2017) |
| Tomeka Reid (since 2017) | |
double bass |
Jaribu Shahid (since 2004) |
double bass |
Junius Paul (since 2017) |
Drums |
Don Moye (since 1970) |
| former members | |
saxophone |
Ari Brown (around 2000) |
Trumpet |
Corey Wilkes (from 2004 to 2006) |
| Guests | |
| Cecil Taylor | |
| Amapundo | |
piano |
Don Pullen |
piano |
Amina Claudine Myers |
| Chicago Beau | |
| Hartmut Geerken | |
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz formation that was founded in Chicago in the 1960s . The ensemble is committed to the aesthetics of the " Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians " in Chicago in the 1960s and initially consisted only of members of this association.
classification
The ensemble represents a specific variant of modern jazz, which places particular emphasis on the black identity of the Afro-American musicians and the African roots of jazz. This includes the fact that African instruments were introduced, melodies and rhythms often refer to African sources, which musicians often performed in African-inspired clothing and painted faces. One of the trademarks of the music of this formation is the variety of instruments played by its members. Music, dance, pantomime and words became a kind of "ritualized theater". By drawing on the entire tradition of Afro-American music, the group showed "a way out of the dead end of abstraction and became a key group in the 1970s and 1980s."
development
Initiated by saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell , his "Roscoe Mitchell Sextet" released the LP "Sound" in 1966 and appeared for the first time on December 3, 1966 in Chicago's Harper Theater under the name "Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble". In addition to Mitchell, Lester Bowie ( trumpet ) and Malachi Favors Maghostut (Malachi Favors) ( bass ) belonged to it. AACM members Joseph Jarman (saxophone) and Phillip Wilson ( drums ) joined in 1967. In this year the first recordings appeared (sometimes other musicians such as Thurman Barker , Robert Crowder and Charles Clark also participated). These musicians have worked together in different compositions and band names for years.
The name was changed during a Lester Bowie-inspired and financially supported tour of France (from spring 1969) when a French promoter announced the band as the "Art Ensemble of Chicago". The French tour (without Philip Wilson, who left the group before the tour to join the Paul Butterfield Blues Band ) and records recorded in Europe were a great success and soon established the ensemble's international recognition. There were tours and recordings with the singer Brigitte Fontaine . Invitations to the SWF Free Jazz Meeting Baden-Baden and the German Jazz Festival led to an intensive exchange with European free jazz musicians .
While the ensemble initially performed without a drummer in Europe, the percussionist Famoudou Don Moye was added to the band in 1970 . After participating in the Baden-Baden Free Jazz Meetings and other festivals, a European tour in 1971 took the band to many European cities. In April 1972 the musicians returned to the United States . The quintet , consisting of Bowie, Favors, Jarman, Mitchel and Moye, played in this line-up until 1993 and has now also enjoyed success in the USA, for example at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1973.
In 1974, 1978 and 1980 the ensemble performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and other European jazz festivals, in 1976 at the Berlin Jazz Days and also toured Japan. It confirmed its reputation as one of the most innovative jazz groups of the 1970s. 1978 began a long collaboration with ECM , a German record label . The LP “Full Force” produced in this context was chosen by the American magazines Down Beat , Melody Maker and Stereo Review as the best jazz publication of 1980. It received the Grand Prix Diamont at the renowned jazz festival in Montreux ( Switzerland ) . The Art Ensemble of Chicago was now one of the most important international jazz bands of its time. The musicians of the group partly worked in parallel with other musical constellations, for example Lester Bowie with his band Brass Fantasy, Roscoe Mitchel with the Note Factory (ECM 1997).
From 1987 onwards, the Art Ensemble recorded a number of notable CDs with the Japanese label DIW. In 1990/1991 the Art Ensemble cooperated with the South African group Amabutho , a black male choir. After appearances in South Africa and a CD recording (Art Ensemble of Soweto) , this constellation undertook an extensive tour of Europe, sometimes supplemented by Bowie's Brass Fantasy. Homage albums for Thelonious Monk (1992 with guest musician Cecil Taylor ) and John Coltrane as well as for Bob Marley , Otis Redding and Jimi Hendrix ( Ancient to the Future ) were released under the series title Dreaming of the Masters . In 1993 Jarman left the formation.
In 1996 the CD Coming Home Jamaica (Birdology / Warner) was released. The reason for the project was initially the collaboration with a Jamaican fruit juice producer for advertising purposes. This publication, which marked the end of the collaboration with DIW, brought the Art Ensemble of Chicago more international attention after a long break. After Bowie's untimely death in 1999, the Art Ensemble continued to work with Ari Brown as a trio for a short time , but regularly involved other musicians in performances and recordings. In 2003 Jarman rejoined the band, and in the same year the Art Ensemble of Chicago performed in Italy under the label Reunion (CD Reunion , 2003).
Malachi Favors (Maghostut) died in 2004 while the CD Sirius Calling was being recorded . Trumpeter Corey Wilkes and bassist Jaribu Shahid became ensemble members in the same year. A live recording of this quintet was released as a double CD in 2006. The group was reactivated in 2017 with trumpeter Hugh Ragin , cellist Tomeka Reid , bassists Shahid and Junius Paul, and early members Mitchell and Moye. In 2018 the Art Ensemble performed with guests in an 11-person formation at the Berlin Jazz Festival; while the performance seemed “old-fashioned” for some of the critics or was reminiscent of “chamber music convention”, others found the performance “pretty”.
Prizes and awards
The album Full Force (1980) was awarded many prizes, for example in the Down Beat as “Album of the Year”; this drew further poll victories for the group as band of the year and also individual musicians (for example by Lester Bowie). The CD Coming Home Jamaica resulted in the Art Ensemble being named “best acoustic music group of the year” by Down Beat in 1996. In 1998, the album was Fanfare for the Warriors in the list "100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One What Listening)" by The Wire added.
Selection discography
- 1967 - Art Ensemble 1967-1968 ( Nessa )
- 1969 - A Jackson in Your House ( BYG Actuel / Metronome)
- 1969 - People in Sorrow
- 1969 - The Paris Session (1969 Freedom / 1975 Arista )
- 1970 - Les Stances a Sophie (originally intended for a French film of the same name by Moshe Misrahi )
- 1977 - Fanfare To The Warriors (Koch / Atlantic)
- 1978 - Nice Guys (ECM)
- 1980 - Urban Bushmen (ECM)
- 1980 - Full Force (ECM, Munich)
- 1982 - Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future ( DIW )
- 1984 - The Complete Live In Japan (DIW)
- 1985 - Naked (DIW)
- 1989 - The Alternate Express (DIW)
- 1989 - The Art Ensemble Of Soweto (DIW)
- 1990 - Dreaming of the Masters (DIW)
- 2003 - The Meeting
- 2018 - We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration
literature
- Art Ensemble of Chicago Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future Chicago.
- Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 1: A – L (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16512). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 .
- George Lewis . A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music . University of Chicago Press, 2008.
- Paul Steinbeck : Message to Our Folks: The Art Ensemble of Chicago (The University of Chicago Press, 2016).
Web links
- Art Ensemble of Chicago - Ancient to the Future , official homepage
- Art Ensemble of Chicago at Allmusic (English)
- Discography ( Memento from February 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Kunzler Jazz Lexicon
- ↑ Ian Carr , cit. n. Mike Hennessey Art Ensemble of Chicago. In: Lincoln T Beauchamp, Jr. BluesSpeak: the best of the Original Chicago blues annual Chicago 2010, pp. 149ff.
- ^ Todd Jenkins Afro Avant-garde: The essential Art Ensemble of Chicago in 10 records
- ↑ The protests from Chicago sound old-fashioned Kieler Nachrichten November 5, 2018
- ↑ Michael Rüsenberg JazzFest Berlin , jazzcity.de
- ↑ Melancholy Lines: The belated Jazz Jazzzeitung