Art Ensemble of Chicago

[David Gitin]

Les Stances A Sophie and People In Sorrow reissued together.

Edited November 22, 2004 by David Gitin

[SEK]

At Dusty Groove - Now:

 

Art Ensemble  Of  Chicago  -- Americans Swinging In Paris -- The Pathe Sessions (Les Stances A Sophie/People In Sorrow) . . . CD . . . $11.99   (Item: 57754)

EMI (France)

[John L]

This got strange distribution in the US. I was waiting for it to appear in the stores, and then just gave up and ordered it. It turned out to be a painless process.

[Chuck Nessa]

Les Stances a Sophie is dubbed from vinyl.

[J.A.W.]

Les Stances a Sophie is dubbed from vinyl.

Did the master get lost?

[.:.impossible]

Chuck,

I read a review of this reissue in Signal To Noise last month by Tom Djll. He writes, "We have the music, though, and unlike the unofficial disc that was reissued in the UK on Soul Jazz a couple of years ago, his one's remastered from the original tapes..."

???

[Chuck Nessa]

I have one, but EMI seems to have lost theirs.

[Chuck Nessa]

Chuck,

I read a review of this reissue in Signal To Noise last month by Tom Djll. He writes, "We have the music, though, and unlike the unofficial disc that was reissued in the UK on Soul Jazz a couple of years ago, his one's remastered from the original tapes..."

???

Signal to Noise will print a correction in the next issue.

[.:.impossible]

B)

[Chuck Nessa]

The review was also in error when stating the UK issue was "unofficial". Soul Jazz licensed it from EMI.

[.:.impossible]

I had a feeling there was something wrong with that review Chuck. I meant to ask you about that. Glad it came up here. Glad you were able to resolve this issue with STN.

[Chuck Nessa]

In addition to the correction, the Summer issue of STN will contain a review of Snurdy.

[JohnS]

Great cd, you won't be disappointed.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yes, don't let my posts deter you from buying this music. People in Sorrow a masterpiece.

[Alexander Hawkins]

People in Sorrow a masterpiece.

I couldn't agree more, and I'll give my recommendation as someone who is pretty new to the AEC. It is an amazing work, and one I just can't get enough of. Really inspired playing. I can only imaghine what it must have been like to see these guys play together. Genuine masters.

[Chuck Nessa]

Well, the record store was Discount Records at 658 State St. I was the store manager. I set up the concert and arranged for the housing for the band. Malachi stayed at our house.

A few small corrections - the concert was May 12, Moye joined the band in the summer of 1970, Roscoe still lived in Chicago, and Cecil had left two years earlier, followed by Bill Dixon, who in turn was followed by Jimmy Cheatham.

I recently discovered a half dozen of those concert posters in my basement.

[Guest Chaney]

I recently discovered a half dozen of those concert posters in my basement.

DIBS ON ONE OF THOSE CONCERT POSTERS!!

Thanks Chuck.

[Chuck Nessa]

I recently discovered a half dozen of those concert posters in my basement.

DIBS ON ONE OF THOSE CONCERT POSTERS!!

Thanks Chuck.

Sorta thought I might save 'em for my (potential, future) grandkids who could sell them on Ebay and the last 2 surviving jazz fans might bid them up to $50,000.

[Chuck Nessa]

Yup, the box is on the "dash to the end". We are in the 2000s now, of 2500 copies of the edition.

[paul secor]

I recently discovered a half dozen of those concert posters in my basement.

Funny how these things happen. Last Friday, I was cleaning out our garage (boss' orders) and I found a flyer from the late 70's for Chuck's old friend J.R. Monterose, who was appearing at a club called Justin McNeils in Albany, N.Y. Nice photo of J.R. on the flyer. It brought back some good memories of the times when I heard him play back then.

Edited April 30, 2003 by paul secor

[J.A.W.]

Yup, the box is on the "dash to the end". We are in the 2000s now, of 2500 copies of the edition.

This box is absolutely essential. Get it before it's too late.

[paul secor]

I heard J.R. in Albany in the '70s with Sal Maida on piano, but don't remember the name of the club. My memory is that he had a sister in Utica (where he was from), and had been relatively inactive before the Albany reappearance(s).

I heard him several times in the 70's. I remember hearing him in a small club on a snowy night with maybe 5 people in the place. He played better than the times I heard him playing for a full house. That night, he had Eddy Robinson (at least that's what my memory tells me - it's been 25 years) who recorded for Blue Note with the Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams group. Does anyone know if Eddy Robinson is still actively playing or still living?

[Adam]

At Dusty Groove - Now:

 

Art Ensemble  Of  Chicago  -- Americans Swinging In Paris -- The Pathe Sessions (Les Stances A Sophie/People In Sorrow) . . . CD . . . $11.99   (Item: 57754)

EMI (France)

Great. I just spent about $20 to get the Soul Jazz issue. Sigh.

[Chuck Nessa]

The extra $12 plus shipping is worth it........just save the Soul Jazz disc and sell it on ebay in a couple of years.

[Guest Chaney]

In addition to the correction, the Summer issue of STN will contain a review of Snurdy.

Here's a review of "Snurdy..." from PARIS Transatlantic:

Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble

SNURDY MCGURDY AND HER DANCIN' SHOES

Nessa NCD-20

by Nate Dorward

This 1980 date marked the debut of Roscoe Mitchell's Sound Ensemble (one of his two regular non-AEOC groups of the time, the other being the Space Ensemble), which found him with a quartet of younger players: trumpeter Hugh Ragin, guitarist A. Spencer Barefield, bassist Jaribu Shahid and drummer Tani Tabbal. Mitchell continued to reconvene the group throughout the 1980s, recording a number of discs for Black Saint, but this vibrant debut recording for Nessa has long had a favoured status among Mitchell enthusiasts. The disc opens memorably with "Sing/Song": the rainfall delicacy of its beginning yields to clubbing frenzy and then - at (literally) the last minute - to a peal of song almost shocking in its freshness and joy. The piece is somehow at once both a fun ride and a cleansing experience. "CYG" and "Round" are characteristic but very different pointillist studies, existing in a state of calm suspension, the musical fabric stitched together with reprises of material which reveal themselves only very gradually: the most obvious instance on "CYG" is the soft but disquietingly prolonged held note at the beginning, midpoint and end of the piece, while "Round" explores its material through a series of unhurried displacements and mirrorings, closing at last with a musical round which fades away like a retreating Oriental procession. "Stomp and the Far East Blues" is an enigmatic dovetailing of sardonic funk and serene exoticism (Barefield's guitar splits the difference between sitar and oud) and the title track is a snappy, off-balance dance that closes the album on a high. Even better, though, is the reading of Braxton's march "Composition 40Q," announced by a cheerfully vulgar football whistle. From this point the listener is relentlessly frog-marched into stranger and stranger surroundings, an experience both disorienting and intensely pleasurable.