Art Ensemble of Chicago

[Ian Thumwood]

There were two musical experiences as a teenager really shocked me when I was discovering jazz as a teenager. One of these was hearing John Surman / Karin Krog perform "My fiends" on Charles Fox's radio programme and another was catching the Art of Ensemble of Chicago on an early Channel Four feature on TV. I've been checking out the AEoC on Youtube and have been amazed by the excitement of this group. For a long while I've loved Lester Bowie's trumpet and the fact that the someone like Freddie Keppard could have recognised his style of jazz in Bowie's playing. The "Brass Fantasy" were one of my favourite groups in the 1980's.

It is fascinating listening to AEoC these days. The freer aspects of their music has never been matched for excitement and I would argue that no other freely improvised group has made music that is quite so compelling. Some of the later albums seems to show a tailing off but the album "Full Force" is terrific and indicative of why ECM was much better in 1980 than it is now. I felt this record combines serious music, straight ahead swing, absolute abstraction and even comedy.

[Alyn_Shipton]

Ian You might remember I did a Jazz Library with them. Not a podcast, but here's the playlist:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzlibrary/pip/y5pw9/

[Serial_Apologist]

Listening to Ian's clip on the Ornette thread, I was strongly reminded of what the Art Ensemble might have sounded like had Don Pullen joined in, when I was in attendance at Louis Moholo's (or Moholo-Moholo's as he now prefers being referred to) Quartet with Jason Yarde on sop, Alex Hawkins joanna, and John Edwards, acoustic bass, at the Vortex on Tuesday. Jason, at his most intense, which on this occasion he was from start to finish, sounds very much like Roscoe on that clip, albeit with quite a bit of bebop phrasing still in his own playing. TBF I left at half time, being so choc-a-bloc with the unremitting intensity of it all - the first part an uninterrputed 40 minute segue of tunes by Dudu, Mongs, Chris McGregor et al v much in the manner of an Art Ensemble blow - maybe I'd been listening to too much Ornette earlier on in the day!

[Ian Thumwood]

Thanks for the info.

I think that Free Improv can be a double edged sword. When it doesn't work, the music can fall flat on it's face. When the music gels, the results are staggering. The AEoC work for me because there are strong characters playing the music and there is a energy that is always bubbling away underneath even when the music is at it's most abstract. They seem far more cohesive than any other group performing in this fashion and although the music is often spontaneous, there is still a sense of drama and flow in the music. It doesn't seem to stop and start like so much freely improvised music and there is none of that disjointed soloing which mars a lot of this music for me. They really listen to each other so that all the little components dovetail in to each other.

When I first listened to jazz, I thought they were charlatans. I can now hear that they were, in fact, amazingly accomplished. I love Don Moye's drumming but Lester Bowie is the biggest draw for me with a character so large on his instrument that only William Shakespeare could have invented him.

[Ian Thumwood]

This sounds like a cracking album by another Chicago stalwart, Harrison Bankhead. Why isn't the bass player better known as he is always sensational whenever I've heard him on records.

Jazzrook will love this samples. (The great Mars Williams on saxes but the whole band sounds terrific.)

http://harrisonbankhead.bandcamp.com/album/morning-sun-harvest-moon