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Art Ensemble 1967/68 Box


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Rumor has it that Jarman has rejoined the group and that they will tour in the future. Can anyone verify?

Jarman is with them again, although I don't think they'll be playing together that frequently since they live in different areas now.

The group has recently recorded two albums (with Jarman) for Pi that'll be out this year. There will also be an ECM album that was recorded a year or two ago (without Jarman) as a tribute to Lester.

I believe the group will be playing at the Chicago Jazz Festival at the end of the summer.

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Guest Chaney

I only have FANFARE but agree with Jim's assessment wholeheartedly on that one.

Same here.

I've taken the liberty of typing out two paragraphs from the Steve Smith penned liner notes as I feel that they give an unusually accurate description of what you'll hear if you GET THIS :wub: SET NOW!

For Fanfare for the Warriors the Art Ensemble chose to include a non-member on record for the first time: Muhal Richard Abrams, their peer and mentor from the Experimental Band. Abrams had played with the band before, most notable at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. (A recording was issued in 1978 as Kabalaba on the band’s own AECO label.) His piano string plucking joins the percussive mélange in “Illistrum”, a Favors setting of a mythological poem recited by Jarman. (Who could ever have imagined that this recording would inspire a Santa Cruz, CA-based bottler of fresh fruit juices to name their company after one of the poem’s characters, Odwalla? The poem and the company’s story appears on its delightful website at www.odwallazone.com) Bowie’s “Barnyard Scuffel Shuffel” passes through a freeform intro into a headlong freebop dash before settling into a rollicking blues shuffle that both acknowledges the tradition and gives it a raspberry. Mitchell’s bracing “Nonaah”, a tangle of staccato lines heard first in opposition, then unison, is a piece that the composer would continue to reexamine in his own subsequent recordings and performances, setting it for solo saxophone, saxophone quartet, string quartet and orchestra.

Jarman’s epic title piece “Fanfare for the Warriors” begins with a beguiling melody that quickly reaches fever pitch, leading to a furious Jarman solo animated by a violence that could easily go toe to toe with such free improv juggernauts as Pharoah Sanders and Peter Brotzmann. After a stabbing Bowie solo and the return of the theme, Abrams ends the piece alone, a brief solo crashing into a long, dramatic fade. Jarman’s “What’s To Say” has a quirky Caribbean lilt, while its contrasting tranquil ending surely echoes the rarefied air of late-period Coltrane. Mitchell’s ghostly “Tnoona”, a study in long, breathy tones and pedal point featuring Bowie blowing air through his horn without forming notes, reflects the composer’s interest in contemporary classical compositional devices; it, too features a closing that is very different from the rest of the piece, a declamatory angular unison line. His closer, the brief song “The Key”, demonstrates that Mitchell is not merely the band’ resident intellectual; the tune reflects a whimsical nostalgia for the kind of Lyrically swinging novelty tune later dubbed “Bug Music” by clarinetist Don Byron, though with a distinctly sardonic tone.

END

A really wonderful outing for this band. :wub:

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Is this a reasonable place to start with AEC. ?

I only have "A Jackson in your house/ Message to our folks" which is pretty entertaining if it werent for the poor audio quality. My Charly CD sounds if its been transfered badly off and poor LP !!! I really love "Snurdy..." ( for me the reissue of the yesr so far) but I guess this set is in a rather different bag.

Mighty tempted to take up Chucks suggestion and pick this up with the Stitt Mosaic. Any final opinions about either set would be welcome.

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Is this a reasonable place to start with AEC. ?

I have nothing else by the AEC (except a late live disc from around 1990.)

I'd say if you're open-eared (/-minded), and the comments made in this thread don't keep you away from it, it's a great place to start.

And finally, if you got it, you can go the chronological way later on (I'm not so far yet, but that's more of a time and money related issue than a question of wanting to), and know their beginnings.

ubu

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Been getting quick listens in to a piece here and there between feedings, burpings, and diaper changes (er...the new baby's, not mine!). Wonderful, just great. Worth every penny. Excellent sound, nice packaging, but the music is of course king. Fresh.

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