Thursday, November 15, 2018

The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles (Box Set) ECM November 2018


“The Art Ensemble of Chicago is alone in jazz history for reaching back conceptually to long before there ever was anything called jazz and moving toward a future beyond category.”
- Nat Hentoff

THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO AND ASSOCIATED ENSEMBLES is a 21-CD limited and numbered edition issued as the standard-bearers of Great Black Music prepare to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Both the Art Ensemble of Chicago and ECM Records were founded in 1969, and there have been many shared experiences. As Roscoe Mitchell says, “It has been amazing to have taken this journey together.”

With their first ECM album, the widely-acclaimed Nice Guys, the Art Ensemble’s revolutionary and polystylistic “ancient to the future” mix of musics - from the deeply spiritual to the fiercely experimental - was illuminated in new detail in Manfred Eicher’s panoramic production, and the stage set for many adventures to follow. These included the albums Full Force, Urban Bushmen, and The Third Decade with the classic AEC quintet line up of Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Famoudou Don Moye. All of Bowie’s and Mitchell’s subsequent ECM recordings are also gathered together here. Charismatic trumpeter Lester Bowie is heard here with his Brass Fantasy group, with Wadada Leo Smith and with Jack DeJohnette. Multi-reed master and primary AEC conceptualist Roscoe Mitchell appears with his Note Factory band, with the Transatlantic Art Ensemble co-founded with Evan Parker, and with an historic trios project recorded at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Along the way, numerous distinguished creative musicians make appearances – the long list includes Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, Craig Taborn, Vijay Iyer, Matthew Shipp, Tyshawn Sorey, Fontella Bass, Charlie Haden, Kenny Wheeler, Corey Wilkes, Gerald Cleaver, Phillip Wilson, George Lewis, William Parker, John Abercrombie, Eddie Gomez, and many others, in ECM recordings made between 1978 and 2015.

This beautifully-designed box set incorporates a 300-page book reprising all original album covers, liner notes and poetry (by Joseph Jarman), as well as quotes from Art Ensemble members and the press, new texts by Craig Taborn, Vijay Iyer and George Lewis, a preface by Manfred Eicher, and an introduction by Steve Lake. Plus: many photographs (some previously unpublished), archival documents, and more.


CD 1
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO : NICE GUYS
1 Ja 08:39
2 Nice Guys 01:41
3 Folkus 10:59
4 5 9 7 - 5 9 06:43
5 Cyp 04:49
6 Dreaming Of The Master 11:40

CD 2
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO : FULL FORCE
1 Magg Zelma 19:50
2 Care Free 00:46
3 Charlie M 09:17
4 Old Time Southside Street Dance 05:11
5 Full Force

CD 3
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO : URBAN BUSHMEN
1 Promenade: Cote Bamako I 04:11
2 Bush Magic 05:05
3 Urban Magic: March / Warm Night Blues Stroll / Down the Walkway / RM Express 15:39
4 Sun Precondition Two / Theme For Sco: Soweto Messenger / Bushman Triumphant / Entering the City / Announcement of Victory 21:53

CD 4
1 New York Is Full Of Lonely People 07:37
2 Ancestral Meditation 06:56
3 Uncle 17:29
4 Peter And Judith 02:39
5 Promenade: Cote Bamako II 05:57
6 Odwalla/Theme 05:14

CD 5
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO : THE THIRD DECADE
1 Prayer For Jimbo Kwesi 09:47
2 Funky AECO 07:39
3 Walking In The Moonlight 04:07
4 The Bell Piece 06:02
5 Zero 05:55
6 Third Decade 08:19

CD 6
LEO SMITH : DIVINE LOVE
1 Divine Love 21:47
2 Tastalun (dedicated to Lester Bowie) 06:39
3 Spirituals: The Language Of Love 15:28

CD 7
LESTER BOWIE : THE GREAT PRETENDER
1 The Great Pretender 16:50
2 It's Howdy Doody Time 02:07
3 When The Doom (Moon) Comes Over The Mountain: a) Doom? b) When The Moon Comes Over The Mountain 03:38
4 Rios Negros 07:15
5 Rose Drop 07:25
6 Oh, How The Ghost Sings 05:50

CD 8
LESTER BOWIE : ALL THE MAGIC!
1 For Louie 12:14
2 Spacehead 06:47
3 Ghosts 03:09
4 All The Magic!/Everything Must Change/T. Jam Blues 15:51
5 Let The Good Times Roll 06:47

CD 9
1 Organic Echo 03:18
2 Dunce Dance 02:05
3 Charlie M. (Part II) 02:51
4 Thirsty? 03:31
5 Almost Christmas 04:52
6 Down Home 02:40
7 Okra Influence 04:39
8 Miles Davis Meets Donald Duck 01:38
9 Deb Deb's Face 02:05
10 Monkey Waltz 01:35
11 Fradulent Fanfare 01:01
12 Organic Echo (Part II) 05:31

CD 10
LESTER BOWIE'S BRASS FANTASY : I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU
1 I Only Have Eyes For You 10:26
2 Think 01:35
3 Lament 13:47
4 Coming Back, Jamaica 05:14
5 Nonet 14:25
6 When The Spirit Returns 07:44

CD 11
LESTER BOWIE'S BRASS FANTASY : AVANT POP
1 The Emperor 10:09
2 Saving All My Love For You 05:06
3 B Funk 03:48
4 Blueberry Hill 05:24
5 Crazy 05:23
6 Macho (Dedicated To Machito) 06:16
7 No Shit 05:11
8 Oh, What A Night 05:33

CD 12
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO : TRIBUTE TO LESTER
1 Sangaredi 07:42
2 Suite for Lester 05:22
3 Zero / Alternate Line 09:16
4 Tutankhamun 08:10
5 As Clear as the Sun 12:41
6 He Speaks to Me Often in Dreams 13:52

CD 13
ROSCOE MITCHELL : NINE TO GET READY
1 Leola 09:35
2 Dream And Response 05:35
3 For Lester B 06:07
4 Jamaican Farewell 05:45
5 Hop Hip Bip Bir Rip 05:59
6 Nine To Get Ready 03:52
7 Bessie Harris 06:47
8 Fallen Heroes 06:33
9 Move Toward The Light 03:24
10 Big Red Peaches 02:03

CD 14
ROSCOE MITCHELL, THE TRANSATLANTIC ART ENSEMBLE : COMPOSITION / IMPROVISATION NOS. 1, 2 & 3
1 I 13:36
2 II 04:07
3 III 18:34
4 IV 05:42
5 V 03:54
6 VI 03:17
7 VII 09:12
8 VIII 14:48
9 IX 05:58

CD 15
EVAN PARKER, THE TRANSATLANTIC ART ENSEMBLE : BOUSTROPHEDON
1 Overture 01:21
2 Furrow 1 08:09
3 Furrow 2 05:46
4 Furrow 3 11:07
5 Furrow 4 05:21
6 Furrow 5 08:20
7 Furrow 6 12:52
8 Finale 06:19

CD 16
ROSCOE MITCHELL, THE NOTE FACTORY : FAR SIDE
1 Far Side / Cards / Far Side 30:56
2 Quintet 2007 A For Eight 09:56
3 Trio Four For Eight 12:37
4 Ex Flover Five 12:24

CD 17
ROSCOE MITCHELL : BELLS FOR THE SOUTH SIDE
1 Spatial Aspects of the Sound 12:14
2 Panoply 07:36
3 Prelude to a Rose 12:44
4 Dancing in the Canyon 10:23
5 EP 7849 08:13
6 Bells for the South Side 12:35

CD 18
1 Prelude to the Card Game, Cards for Drums, and The Final Hand 16:03
2 The Last Chord 12:26
3 Six Gongs and Two Woodblocks 07:50
4 R509A Twenty B 01:34
5 Red Moon In The Sky / Odwalla 25:49

CD 19
JACK DEJOHNETTE, NEW DIRECTIONS : NEW DIRECTIONS
1 Bayou Fever 08:40
2 Where Or Wayne 12:25
3 Dream Stalker 05:55
4 One Handed Woman 10:49
5 Silver Hollow 08:24

CD 20
JACK DEJOHNETTE, NEW DIRECTIONS : IN EUROPE
1 Salsa For Eddie G. 16:05
2 Where Or Wayne 12:29
3 Bayou Fever 18:24
4 Multo Spiliagio 09:33

CD 21
JACK DEJOHNETTE, MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS, LARRY GRAY, ROSCOE MITCHELL, HENRY THREADGILL : MADE IN CHICAGO
1 Chant 16:56
2 Jack 5 14:53
3 This 12:13
4 Museum of Time 13:37
5 Leave Don't Go Away 10:19
6 Announcement 03:28
7 Ten Minutes 06:09