A program of duets for trumpet and piano building from the historic duo of Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines of the song "Weatherbird". Conceived in 2014 and 15 as the fulfillment of a commission from the International Contemporary Ensemble, this album was recorded at the home of Randy Ezratty and Jo Ann Corkran in September of 2015. It documents a live concert with some of the music recorded the day before in preparation.
Cory Smythe - piano, compositions
Peter Evans - trumpet, piccolo trumpet, compositions
1. Weatherbird 03:25
2. Weatherbird Wave 05:53
3. Bsntbls 05:35
4. Weatherbirdhouse 03:04
5. Bls 07:21
6. Weatherbird 04:17
Weatherbird composed by Louis Armstrong
Weatherbird Wave and Weatherbirdhouse composed by Cory Smythe
“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
In his second ECM appearance (following a critically-acclaimed duo recording with Markus Stockhausen) pianist Florian Weber leads a strong cast through a programme of his compositions and sketches. Whether paying tribute to mentor Lee Konitz on “Honestlee”, impressionistically conveying the glittering “Melody of a Waterfall” or generating impactful drama out of fragments of sound on “Butterfly Effect”, Weber continually draws fresh responses from his players. “I wanted this project to be as open as possible”, he says. “It’s the idea of exploration that is important here, and the differences between the players.” The strong, grounded bass of Linda May Han Oh contrasts strikingly with Nasheet Waits’s fleet, fluid drumming, setting up new contexts for Ralph Alessi’s elegantly inventive trumpet and the leader’s highly creative piano playing. Lucent Waters was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in September 2017, and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Florian Weber Piano
Ralph Alessi Trumpet
Linda May Han Oh Double Bass
Nasheet Waits Drums
1 BRILLIANT WATERS (Florian Weber) 02:07
2 MELODY OF A WATERFALL (Florian Weber) 03:02
3 FROM COUSTEAU'S POINT OF VIEW (Florian Weber) 05:37
Speaking to the New York Times in 2007, Alfred Brendel said of fellow pianist Till Fellner: “It has impressed me how ambitiously he has developed his repertory, being equally at home in solo and concerto repertoire, chamber music and lieder… I heard him do the best live performance of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage”. Fellner’s insightful playing of the Premiere année from that collection of suites, underlines the contention, vividly conveying Franz Liszt’s literal and imaginative journeys. “Having recently travelled to many new countries,” wrote the composer in 1855, “through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry, and having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights stirred deep emotions in my soul, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions”. Fellner’s account of Liszt was recorded at the Musikvereien in Vienna in 2002. It is paired here with a concert recording of Beethoven’s Sonata No 32, recorded at the Mahaney Center for the Arts in Middlebury, Vermont in 2010, the year in which ECM released Fellner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos 4 and 5 to a chorus of critical acclaim.
Till Fellner Piano
FRANZ LISZT - ANNÉES DE PÈLERINAGE, PREMIÈRE ANNÉE - SUISSE
1 Chapelle de Guillaume Tell 05:43
2 Au lac de Wallenstadt 03:20
3 Pastorale 01:32
4 Au bord d'une source 03:51
5 Orage 04:17
6 Vallée d'Obermann 13:08
7 Églogue 03:17
8 Le mal du pays 05:33
9 Les cloches de Genève 06:21
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN - SONATA NO. 32 IN C MINOR OP. 111
10 Maestoso - Allegro con brio ed appassionato 09:09
11 Arietta. Adagio molto semplice e cantabile 19:17
Andrew Cyrille’s title Lebroba is a contraction of Leland, Brooklyn and Baltimore, birthplaces of the protagonists of an album bringing together three of creative music’s independent thinkers. Each of them made his first ECM appearance long ago: drummer Andrew Cyrille on Marion Brown’s Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (1970), trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith on his own classic Divine Love (1978), and guitarist Bill Frisell on Eberhard Weber’s Fluid Rustle (1979); these are, of course, players of enduring influence. Frisell contributed to Cyrille’s previous ECM disc The Declaration of Musical Independence, but Lebroba marks a first-time meeting for the guitarist and Wadada Leo Smith. A generous leader, Cyrille gives plenty of room to his cohorts, and all three musicians bring in compositions, with “Turiya”, Wadada’s elegant dedication to Alice Coltrane, unfurling slowly over its 17-minute duration. In his own pieces, including the title track and the closing “Pretty Beauty”, Cyrille rarely puts the focus on the drums, preferring to play melodically and interactively, sensitive to pitch and to space. There are references to West African music and the blues as well as the history of jazz drumming, but Cyrille’s priority today is an elliptical style in which meter is implied rather than stated.
Andrew Cyrille Drums
Wadada Leo Smith Trumpet
Bill Frisell Guitar
1 WORRIED WOMAN (Bill Frisell) 07:35
2 TURIYA: ALICE COLTRANE MEDITATIONS AND DREAMS LOVE (Wadada Leo Smith) 17:24
3 LEBROBA (Andrew Cyrille) 05:44
4 TGD (Andrew Cyrille, Bill Frisell, Wadada Leo Smith) 05:17
German cellist Anja Lechner and Argentinean guitarist Pablo Márquez met in 2003 and have since explored the most diverse repertoire and modes of expression in their concerts. For their first duo album, a conceptual context is provided by the strong tradition of songs with guitar accompaniment prevalent in 19th century Vienna, as Lechner and Márquez play some of Schubert’s most beloved songs (including Die Nacht, Nacht und Träume and Der Leiermann), elegantly framing the album’s centrepiece: Schubert’s expansive ‘Arpeggione’ sonata. Many of Schubert’s songs were published in alternative versions with guitar during the composer’s lifetime; in some cases, the guitar version appeared even before the one for piano. Interspersed on the recording, as an echo and commentary to Schubert’s spirit and language, are the graceful Trois Nocturnes originally written for cello and guitar by Friedrich Burgmüller (1806-1874). Die Nacht is issued as Lechner and Márquez embark on a European tour with concerts in Germany, Austria, France, Hungary and Romania.
1 NOCTURNE NR. 1 IN A-MOLL. ANDANTINO 03:37
(Friedrich Burgmüller)
2 NACHT UND TRÄUME, D 827 02:46
(Franz Schubert)
3 NOCTURNE NR. 3 IN C-DUR. ALLEGRO MODERATO 02:20
(Friedrich Burgmüller)
4 DIE NACHT
(Franz Schubert) 02:23
FRANZ SCHUBERT - DIE WINTERREISE, D 911
5 Der Leiermann 03:58
FRANZ SCHUBERT - ARPEGGIONE SONATE IN A-MOLL, D 821
6 Allegro moderato 12:45
7 Adagio 04:05
8 Allegretto 09:39
9 FISCHERWEISE, D 881 02:23
(Franz Schubert)
10 MEERES STILLE, D 216 00:07 - 02:01
(Franz Schubert)
11 NOCTURNE NR. 2 IN F-DUR. ADAGIO CANTABILE 03:44
(Friedrich Burgmüller)
FRANZ SCHUBERT - ROSAMUNDE, D 797
12 Romanze 02:31
13 NOCTURNE NR. 1 IN A-MOLL. ANDANTINO (VAR.) 03:34
