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PHOTO: ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO (1967-PRESENT)
http://soundprojections.blogspot.com/…/art-ensemble-of-chic…
Saturday, May 2, 2015
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO (1967-Present): Legendary iconic, and innovative quintet of musicians, composers, arrangers, bandleaders, music theorists, philosophers, and teachers
Theme De Yoyo
(Music & Lyrics by the Art Ensemble of Chicago--the singer is FONTELLA BASS)
Your head is like a yoyo
your neck is like a string
Your body's like camembert
oozing from its skin.
Your fanny's like two sperm whales
floating down the Seine
Your voice is like a long fork
that's music to your brain.
Your eyes are two blind eagles
that kill what they can't see
Your hands are like two shovels
digging in me.
And your love is like an oil-well
Dig, dig, dig, dig it,
On the Champs-Elysees.
your neck is like a string
Your body's like camembert
oozing from its skin.
Your fanny's like two sperm whales
floating down the Seine
Your voice is like a long fork
that's music to your brain.
Your eyes are two blind eagles
that kill what they can't see
Your hands are like two shovels
digging in me.
And your love is like an oil-well
Dig, dig, dig, dig it,
On the Champs-Elysees.
Art Ensemble Of Chicago – Message To Our Folks [Full Album] 1969
Tracklist:
00:00 Old Time Religion
07:41 Dexterity
11:46 Rock Out
20:22 A Brain For The Seine
All compositions except "Old Time Religion (traditional) and "Dexterity" (by Charlie Parker) + all arrangements by the Art Ensemble of Chicago
Bass [Fender], Bass, Banjo, Drum [Log Drum], Sitar [Cythar], Percussion – Malachi Favors
Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Bass Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute, Cymbal, Gong, Congas, Percussion [Logs], Bells, Siren, Whistle, Steel Drums – Roscoe Mitchell
Soprano Saxophone, Alto Saxophone, Clarinet, Oboe, Flute, Marimba, Vibraphone [Vibes], Congas, Bells, Whistle, Gong, Siren, Guitar – Joseph Jarman
Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Bass Drum, Horns – Lester Bowie
Recorded August 12, 1969, Studio Saravah, Paris France
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: Long Live Great Black Music!
by Kofi Natambu
September 12, 1984
Detroit Metro Times
One of the more absurd comments made about contemporary black creative music of late is a ridiculous assertion made by someone who should know better, a certain Mr. Wynton Marsalis—trumpet wunderkind and current Jazz celebrity darling. In an astounding statement even for the usually outspoken and highly opinionated 22-year-old, Marsalis says in the July, 1984 edition of Downbeat magazine that “nothing got established in the Jazz tradition in the 1970s.” This is such an outlandishly false statement on the given evidence that it almost doesn’t deserve a reply. But we can’t simply allow such an obviously silly and inaccurate remark to slide by without a severe challenge, even if it was made by an overzealous young media “star.”
C’mon Wynton, Give-us-a-break brother! You mean to tell me that you never heard of the Art Ensemble of Chicago? It’s sad, but true, that unfortunately there are still too many musicians who out of ignorance, pettiness or bias try to deny that necessary and often profound changes are taking place. Of course no one says that Marsalis or anyone else has “to like it” but please, a little credit where credit is due!
Speaking of credit, let’s all take a few precious moments to humbly acknowledge and thank Ptah (the God who protects and nurtures the Artist) that we have the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Talk about IRONY. Where else but in American music would one find five black virtuoso musician-composers who between them have mastered over one hundred instruments, including nearly every single member of the reed and woodwind families, as well as trumpet, bugle, and a bewildering array of percussion, string, and traditional acoustic instruments from various ethnic cultures around the world? The AEC is a virtual sonic encyclopedia of forms, styles, and traditions in the long history of African-American, and other world musics. After all, we are talking about the very best contemporary representatives of that endlessly creative tradition called “Jazz” though it should be stated up front that the AEC is much too dynamic, versatile, and broad-minded in concept and method to be easily fitted into any single category of musical expression.
It is equally important to realize that despite expressing a very wide spectrum of musical tastes and interests that range from the blues to swing, ragtime, ballads, spirituals, bebop, rock ‘n roll, ancestral folk songs, and various so-called “avant-garde” and ethnic musics, the Art Ensemble is not merely an eccentric band of eclectics. There is always at the core of their musical performances an utterly independent and quite original vision of what the AEC has always simply called “Great Black Music.” It is this boundless visionary spirit, and a stunning extension and subtle re-evaluation of the totality of ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ music (and by artistic implication, their cultural philosophies) that characterizes the AEC and makes them, in my view, the most important musical ensemble to emerge in the U.S. since the John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman Quartets put everyone on notice some 25 years ago.
It is necessary then to ask two rather obvious questions: Where did such a band come from, and who are these guys anyway? For an answer to both questions you have to start in Chicago. It was there that four of these five dapper young men met and played together. It began as early as 1961 when the pianist-composer Muhal Richard Abrams put together the Experimental Band, a workshop and rehearsal outlet for young innovative musician-composers. It was also in this big band that the great Roscoe Mitchell met and began to collaborate with another extraordinary multi-instrumentalist and composer, Joseph Jarman. It was in this ensemble that Mitchell first met and worked with one of the finest bassists in the world, the regal Malachi Favors Maghostut.
It was also in Shytown in March, 1965, that a visionary group of black creative musicians led by young veteran musician-composers Muhal Richard Abrams, Jodie Christian, Steve McCall, and Phil Cohran organized the now world famous musicians’ collective known as the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). It was in this nurturing context of on-going creative activity that the wise and whimsical Mr. Lester Bowie, trumpet master and composer joined the then Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in 1966, after arriving from St. Louis. It was this group (Mitchell, Favors, and Bowie, along with drummer Phillip Wilson) that first began to gain considerable attention in improvisational music circles. In 1966 Mitchell’s group, augmented with other outstanding young musicians from the AACM record Sound for the local based label, Delmark Records. This record quickly became a cherished collector’s item and is a landmark in the development of ‘new music’ worldwide.
In l968 Joseph Jarman, who had been leading his own highly innovative groups, joined with Mitchell, Favors, and Bowie to officially form the first edition of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It was this group that gained legendary status by leaving the U.S. for France in 1969, where they remained for two years recording some fifteen albums while also composing music for three films and touring throughout Europe. It was during this whirlwind tour that they met the outstanding drummer/composer Famoudou Don Moye who had been playing with the Detroit Free Jazz ensemble in Italy. Moye joined the band permanently in 1970.
The Art Ensemble features incredible versatility along with dazzling theatrics, a high sense of drama and great wit and humor, not to mention lyrical and explosive poetry and a dadaist sense of reality. Don’t walk, RUN to the Detroit Institute of Arts, Wednesday, September 19 at 8p.m. You will hear one of the true wonders in all of music today.
The Art Ensemble Of Chicago (LIVE sometime during the late'70s, early '80s)
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Châteauvallon 1970
France
FOR THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO
by Kofi Natambu
These painters of luminous landscapes their canvas a soaring sound in steel blue and flowing reds the royal song a floating majesty its black and golden robes marching toward the light.
It is the new day they sing to the new way they cling to the freshpaint they spray thru our secure but rotting walls
Spatial muralists with electron brushes swift proton strokes crystal neutron rhythms they fill the gaping atomic holes in our souls
by Kofi Natambu
These painters of luminous landscapes their canvas a soaring sound in steel blue and flowing reds the royal song a floating majesty its black and golden robes marching toward the light.
It is the new day they sing to the new way they cling to the freshpaint they spray thru our secure but rotting walls
Spatial muralists with electron brushes swift proton strokes crystal neutron rhythms they fill the gaping atomic holes in our souls
Art Ensemble Of Chicago
Budapest (Hungary) 1:
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO
Budapest, Petőfi Csarnok - 1995. február 14.
Roscoe Mitchell: szaxofonok; Lester Bowie: trombita; Malachi Favors: nagybőgő; Don Moye: dobok, ütőhangszerek
Art Ensemble Of Chicago - A Jackson In Your House (1969) FULL ALBUM
BYG Records – 529.302 / Actuel – 2
(France, 1969)
A1. A Jackson In Your House
05:44
A2. Get In Line
11:29
A3. The Waltz
12:46
B1. Ericka / Song For Charles
Recorded June 23, 1969 at Studio Saravah, Paris.
Personnel:
Lester Bowie: trumpet, percussion instruments
Malachi Favors Maghostut: bass, percussion instruments, vocals
Joseph Jarman: saxophones, clarinets, percussion instruments
Roscoe Mitchell: saxophones, clarinets, flute, percussion instruments
A Jackson in Your House was recorded while the Art Ensemble was on its initial sojourn in Paris with just a quartet -- Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and Joseph Jarman -- because drummer Phillip Wilson had left to play with Muhal Richard Abrams and Foumoudou Don Moye wasn't in the house yet. So this, along with its companion LP, A Message to Our Folks, showcases the Art Ensemble at its bravest and most vulnerable. For those familiar with the earlier recordings on Nessa, such as People in Sorrow, A Jackson in Your House is shockingly formalist, though far from conventional in any way. Here the band was interested in being a gigging and recording "art ensemble" more than being a free jazz group. Hence, all sorts of theatrical elements are involved in the performances. The set opens with the title track, which sounds like a rent party with music playing both on the juke and in the living room. Given that this was 1969, a number of jazz critics misunderstood the New Orleans references in the music and took this to mean that the band had either sold out its experimental heritage (which is absurd), or they were poking fun at the founding fathers of the music known as jazz (which is absurd, too). If anything, by utilizing on the opening statement -- and indeed throughout the album -- the historical frames of jazz, the Art Ensemble revealed its deep empathy with Armstrong, W.C. Handy, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, etc. The freewheeling influence of Ornette Coleman is felt on "Get in Line," with its strident pacing, stop-on-a-dime changes, and stretched melodic and harmonic sensibilities -- check out Favors trying to keep the saxophones "lined up" in the middle of the tune since he's the only rhythm player. There are some things that don't translate well to a recording session, however, and the largely spoken theater of "Old Time Religion" is one of them. Near the end of the disc, on "Rock Out," the band proves it can funk and rock with the best and worst of them by using an electric guitar and a host of percussion instruments, taking a riff apart endlessly until it becomes just some funky detritus in the mix. A Jackson in Your House is not the finest or most revelatory recording by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, but it is one of their more entertaining and carefree outings and, as expected, the French ate it up.
