The Art Ensemble of Chicago (part 1)

An Introduction
Words: Gian Paolo Galasi

The Art Ensemble of Chicago in Nervi 1979

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is one of the most revered groups of improvised music, even outside of the jazz community. At the beginning of the new Century, Motorpsycho and Jaga Jazzist Horns gave shape on their split album "In the Fishtank" (Konkurrent, 2003) to their rendition of the 'Thème de Yoyo'. In those same years, to pick up a reissue of ESP-Disks featuring Sun Ra and Albert Ayler, or BYG-Actuel records dedicated to Milford Graves and Alan Silva, or even to be astonished by one of the last Coltrane live performances newly put on Impulse! was finally possible for a wider and younger public.

People could immerse way ahead back in the history of jazz, and that was a refreshing and exciting experience, for all those educated by the likes of Slint, Tortoise, Gastr Del Sol or Godspeed You Black Emperor! to be curious about past and present forms of music more focused on expanding structures and dealing with sound, more that previous post-modern indie-rock or grunge-existentialist generation.

Adventurous listeners (and musicians, at least the younger ones, those more interested in developing something more personal on their own) were also putting their ears on heavy psychedelia rooted in kraut-rock (Can, Neu!, Popol Vuh), in that part of English progressive music formerly known as 'Canterbury rock' (Soft Machine, Henry Cow, that were collaborating with the South-African The Blue Notes / Brotherhood of Breath),  and contemporary music (John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen) so to have a more complete picture of the past century perspectives on music.

The internet was also full of resources for those who wanted to go deeper with that music than The Wire or other reviews on both sides of the Atlantic were doing on paper: Matthew Goodheart notes on Cecil Taylor music, wide portions of socialist Frank Kofsky's writings on the 60's ideals surrounding and infusing both John Coltrane and Malcolm X; Perfect Sound and Bagatellen's essays and interviews, and, more obviously, lots of files to download, listen to and share, waiting for a physical reissue to put on shelves.

In the meantime, Mr. Anthony Braxton was coospirating with sonic terrorists Wolf Eyes from Victoriaville's stage, while sampled by white hip hop minstrel Buck 65 along with Richard Teitelbaum, while David Sylvian was engaging Evan Parker and Derek Bailey for his "Manafon" and "Blemish" records. I didn't have an older brother happy to live again the golden age of Pop Group, Barry Adamson's Magazine and The Slits collaborating with Neneh Cherry - but what about the Manchester-born bassist recruiting Matana Roberts, that a month ago issued a record for the Constellation label? -, but it doesn't matter.

Coming back on topic, for thirty-something listeners The Art Ensemble of Chicago was the more affordable experience to start with, along with the Sun Ra Arkestra. Because of the constant presence of two major works like the couple of Atlantic outputs, in which the use of percussions, their relative 'straightness' and fluidity can be considered a good hint in understanding and appreciating their theatrical attitude. It is impossible to introduce the Art Ensemble of Chicago (from now on AEC) without talking about the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

In order to introduce the AACM, those words by Anthony Braxton can be considered an excellent syinthetic statement:

"The AACM musicians [...] not only they demonstrated a solo music, they've demonstrated ensemble music, orchestral music, music in the conventional systems, music in their own systems and their own relationship to time and rhythm; [...] People talk about the AACM as if it represented one set of values or one area of research, but it was a dynamic spectrum: no one was interested in establishing a single collective voice. It was a restructuralist school, a union of restructuralist thinkers".

Apartment Building in Chicago's "Black Belt"

"The history of African Americans in Chicago dates back to Jean Baptiste Point du Sable’s trading activities in the 1780s.[1] Fugitive slaves and freedmen established the city’s first black community in the 1840s. By the late 19th c., the first black had been elected to office.

The Great Migrations from 1910 to 1960 brought hundreds of thousands of blacks from the South to Chicago, where they became an urban population. They created churches, community organizations, important businesses, and great music and literature. African Americans of all classes built community on the South Side of Chicago for decades before the Civil Rights Movement. Their goal was to build a community where blacks could pursue life with the same rights as whites." (from Wikipedia)

The 'Black Belt', which was the city's ghetto (even if socially well notched) was inhabited by almost all Chicago's black population - over one million of people -, struggled by being overcrowded, by unemployment and by the lowering of education and life standards since 1918, when the Migrations were increasing the amount of black people living in his boundaries.

In 1961 Sun Ra and his Arkestra, that was also an idea of community and living together, definitely left Chicago for New York. The same year, pianist Richard Abrams (then named 'Muhal', which means 'first') put together with Donald Rafael Garret the Experimental Band. Abrams was at the time the most wanted pianist by the great soloists coming to the city to play gigs, including Miles Davis and Dexter Gordon. Garret was clarinetist and bassist, played with Sun Ra and Rashaan Roland Kirk, and is present on John Coltrane's "Live in Seattle". Both musicians were at the core of a group of players that developed jazz in a different direction than the 'new thing' generation. Trumpeter Lester Bowie: 

“It was just the guys brought in music, and we just played it. I mean, it was like just a normal rehearsal, like any other band, except the music was a bit different. But we just all came and met, and they passed out the charts, and then we would run through . . . Let's say in a particular evening there were five or six charts we would run through, from Braxton or from Muhal or whoever. (...) I mean, it was interesting music. Muhal is one of the great composers and arrangers. It was really exciting. And the thing that's really so nice about the AACM -- you had all these individuals.

I mean, you had Threadgill's music, you had Braxton's music, Roscoe's, Joseph's. I mean, it was just unbelievable, the difference in the approaches. So they were all really very fresh. We weren't really everyone coming out of the same thing (...) we had done quite a few concerts together anyway, before he [Jarman, ndA] formally joined the group. We had been working together. As a matter of fact, we had done big things with his group and our group. We used to have some quite interesting programs in the AACM. You wouldn't believe some of the combinations of individuals and instruments that we had. (...) We'd have Joseph in Roscoe's band and in Braxton's band, and just so much excitement, so different."

AACM circa 1968

So Lester Bowie, reedists Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre bassist Malachi Favors, trumpeter Phil Coran (after he left Sun Ra), drummer Steve McCall and pianist Jodie Christian. Almost at the same moment, in St. Louis, the Black Artist Group (Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, David Murray) start to develop their own music and soon came in contact with the Chicagoans. About the music they were playing, Lester Bowie said:

"I remember the first festival we did. We hooked up with the guys from St. Louis who formed an organization similar to the AACM, from our example -- they started a group called B.A.G, Black Artists' Group, in St. Louis. There was another group in Detroit. So we started having exchange concerts and having our own mini-festivals. 

I remember the first time that the St. Louis guys came up, and the Chicago guys were kind of chesty, "Hey, we got this down" -- we were kind of chesty. Hey, Lake and LeFlore and Scrooge, they came up, and they was like walking all over us. Hemphill . . . They were walking all over the AACM cats! It was so exciting, just the music . . . To hear so many people within this so-called . . . That's why Malachi says "so-called free." People, when they think of free music, they just have one thing in their mind, [sings incoherent line], and that's all that happens. But there's so much more expression and emotional depth in that sort of music. And when they came up, it just kind of shocked everyone just to realize just how great musicians are wherever they happen to be from. They don't have to be from New York or Chicago, or you don't have to have ever heard of them -- and they are just outstanding”. 

From the Experimental Band sorted out Phil Corhan's Ethnic Eritage Ensemble and Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, on which from now on we will focus since the next article.

As Joseph Jarman:  

“Well, remember that we were all members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. So we had developed a kind of bond that was spiritual as well as political as well as financial, and through the auspices and the philosophy of the AACM, we were able to manifest this Art Ensemble group, to share and do everything together, and that was very unusual for a group to do. Until Muhal Richard Abrams and Phil Cohran founded the AACM, we had never had that experience, except when were in Muhal's Experimental Band, which was a band that didn't perform publicly. We just went into this place to rehearse, take our music and that'd be it. After two or three years, we had to perform 'cause the place that was allowing us to rehearse needed to know we were actually doing something there! (laughs) That was the Abraham Lincoln Center on Chicago's South Side. It was after that the AACM was founded, and it was based upon that experience that we were able to generate what became known as the Art Ensemble".

Related Bibliography

Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot. 1922.

Drake, St. Clair, and Horace R. Cayton. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. Rev. ed. 1993.

Philpott, Thomas Lee. The Slum and the Ghetto: Neighborhood Deterioration and Middle-Class Reform, Chicago, 1880–1930. 1978.

Lewis, George. A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Shipton, Alyn. A New History of Jazz. London: Continuum, 2001.

Jost, Ekkehard. Free Jazz. Da Capo Press, 1994
Lock, Graham. Forces In Motion. The Music and Thoughts of Anthony Braxton. New York: Da Capo Press, 1988
Litweiler, John. The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958. Poole, Doorset: Blandford Press, 1985

Wilmer, Valerie. As Serious as Your Life: John Coltrane and Beyond, London: Serpent's Tail, 1977

This is Our Music (from the 'lofts')

The 'Loft Season' - Pt. 2: A sampled discography

Words: Gian Paolo Galasi

Shut up and listen: Lawrence D. 'Butch' Morris

A complete discography for the entire period related to the "Loft Era" and the "Downtown Music Scene" is probably still impossible to draw, since almost all the Lps issued from 1972 to 1986 are basically out of print. Four of the links at the end of the 3^rd part of this series of articles are related to the major labels of those years, but the number of labels that issued records at that time is surely larger. While I'm writing I'm still not aware of any complete attempt to compile a full catalogue; I strongly doubt it, but readers who know more are encouraged to email me. I'm attending to do more researches on the subject, hereinafter.  

Pheeroan Aklaff - House of the Spirit: "Mirth" (Passing Thru, 1979)

"Pheeroan Aklaff believes that the arts are a way to give thanks and to work for change". Born in 1955 in Detroit, then active as a drummer also in Ann Harbor, Michigan, and New Haven, Connecticut, Pheeroan Aklaaf debuted on record with Bill Barron in 1975, then he was in Wadada Leo Smith's New Dalta Akri. Long time rhythmic conspirator with the AACM trumpet player (and still active in his Organic band), with Oliver Lake and with Henry Threadgill since his New Air records on Black Saint, Pheeroan travelled to Lagos (where he met Fela Kuti), Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire and India. "House of the Spirit: 'Mirth'" was released in 1980, and is a solo drum record. As for almost all the music produced during the Loft Era, in comparison to previous efforts (a good example being Milford Graves' "Percussion Ensemble" on Esp Records), Aklaaf's approach to music is more 'straight', less abstract, 'back to roots' of funky, soul and gospel music; even the many influences from African, Brazilian and Eastern rhythms are easily recognizable by a non-musician. The same with the gospel that informs a track like 'Freedom'. '3 in 1', the composition closing the album, was issued on SoulJazz's compilation "Revolution, rhythm and sound" two years ago. According to the AllMusic Guide, this record has been reissued this year by Universal Sound, but on the official site of the label there is nothing about the subject.

Mbari (Julius Hemphill) - "Dogon A.D." (Arista Freedom, 1972)

Many times, writing about the difference between experimental and popular music doesn't pay the bill, and Julius Hemphill's music is just the case, syncretistic as much as underrated and unrecognized. His disciples are as diverse horn players as David Sanborn and Tim Berne (who reissued for his Screwgun label the remarkable Blue Boye). In an online interview, Berne explains how Hemphill music was reconciling r&b with avant-garde. Born in Forth Worth, Texas - also Ornette Coleman hometown - in 1938, deeply influenced by gospel and rhythm&blues, due to his local roots, and jazz, via Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz and Cannonbal Adderley, in 1968 Hemphill moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he joined the Black Artists Group, an association very similar to the Chicago's AACM. After playing with Anthony Braxton in several saxophone-only ensembles, Hemphill founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Oliver Lake and Hamiett Bluiett. "Dogon A.D." was released on Freedom in 1972, with trumpeter Baikida Carroll, cellist Abdul Wadud, and drummer Philip Wilson. You can take this record as an answer to the Art Ensemble of Chicago's famous "Les Stances à Sophie", but by itself is one of the early, and most accomplished examples of what the direction of the music would have been for the next 15 years in New York's avant-jazz environment. "Live In New York", a beautiful cello and saxophone duo record by Julius Hemphill and Abdul Wadud, recorded in 1976 in NYC, is another record worth to be mentioned.

David Murray -  Synthesis Sentiments (Ra Records, 1979)

Differently from his WSQ classmate Hemphill, saxophonist David Murray is still active and widely recognized by the jazz community. In this record there is also saxophonist Arthur Blythe, trumpeter Olu Dara and percussionist Rashaan. But it's Flower for Albert, an homage to Ayler's mastery, to make deeply understand the ideal lineage of that music. Born in 1955 in Oakland, California, and awarded with such honours as a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Grammy Award, and named musician of the decade in 1980 by the Village Voice, like his fellow Hemphill David Murray refused to be over-influenced by John Coltrane, developing, instead, a language that is more reminiscent of Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Paul Gonsalves. Master in circular breathing, his voice on tenor is very related to human voice, warm and mellow even when dissonant and churny. David Murray has recorded or performed with musicians such as Henry Threadgill, James Blood Ulmer, Olu Dara, Tani Tabbal, 'Butch' Morris, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Ed Blackwell, Johnny Dyani, and Steve McCall.

Charles Brackeen - Rhythm X (Strata-East, 1968)

Dress rehearsals for the Loft-era to come. In 1968, Strata East released Rhythm X, in which Charles Brackeen is accompanied by the same musicians that gave fire to the world of jazz with their mentor Ornette Coleman. So, Charlie Haden on bass, Ed Blackwell on drums and Don Cherry on trumpet give shape to a beautiful set that is a good companion to "This is Our Music" and "The Shape of Jazz to Come". Charles Brackeen is another unsung hero, master on both tenor and alto saxophone; born in Oklahoma on March 13, 1940, he moved to California in 1956. Rhythm X is his first album as a leader. In 1973 Brackeen met again Don Cherry for his "Relativity Suite", and in 1975 was part of Leroy Jenkins' first album "For Players Only", including the likes of Anthony Braxton, Dewey Redman, Leo Smith, and Jerome Cooper. The year after he took part of a session with pianist Ahmed Abdullah, part of which was included in the third volume of "Wildflowers: New York Loft Sessions". After a collaboration with David Izenzon and Paul Motian, Charled Brackeen took part of the sessions that lead bassist William Parker to record "Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace", positioning himself as a bridge between the new and the older generations of creative New York musicians.

Commitment - The Complete Recordings 1981/1983 (No Business Rec., 2010)

Multi-culturalism and multi-ethnics, as part of improving self-consciousness, was part of the program in NY loft scene. This beautiful and important reissue, coupling the 3 CD box "Muntu" dedicated to art and mastery of Jemeel Moondoc, is one of the most important document of the generation of musicians coming after Murray and Aklaaf: bassist William Parker, trumpeter Roy Campbell, reedist Will Connell, Jr, violinist Jason Kao Hwang and drummer Zen Matsuura. Both re-issued by Lithuanian label No Business Records, those two CDs show a music in which timbre, sound, nuances and shades are as important as the attempt to synthesize different musical experiences in an almost meditative, but dense, setting. Ethnic and stylistic references are now melt together in a different way that the previous generations of loft musicians did: so, this music is quite similar to the first proper avant-garde generation, the one under the AACM umbrella, but the blending and the layering of the many faces of music is more homogenous, less rough and extreme. Probably Bill Dixon lesson was absorbed in a more effective manner, but maybe it's difficult to point and find out for a single musician and moment in developing such experiences. Try also and listen to the beautiful archival material that Geodesic is currently issuing, with beautiful concerts taken at the Detroit Institute Of Art since 1979 to 1992: the first three volumes, in which people like Leroi Jenkins, Tani Tabbal, Jaribu Shahid and Spencer Barefield are involved, will show you many analogies with this material coming from New York .