Remembering The Art Ensemble of Chicago

A force of nature

Recently, I read a biography of the seminal jazz group, the Art Ensemble of Chicago entitled “Message To Our Folks.” It reminded me of what an important contribution these five men made to modern music.

I attended an Art Ensemble workshop at Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio in 1979. It was 10 days long and amongst the most impactful musical experiences of my life. These guys were the real deal. They kind of scared me. They were intense, bigger- than -life figures, and certainly unlike most anyone I had ever run into, given my upbringing. I suppose this may be where my interest in music camps began.

Many of the classes were not only illuminating from a creative standpoint, they were of considerable practical use. Roscoe Mitchell sat us around in a circle every day where we would all improvise together. The only rule was that you had to pay intimate attention to what was going on. Don’t play unless you HAVE to. If he felt anyone played a note that was out of place, he would snap his fingers, and we would start again. He never smiled. He may have looked pretty pissed off. Maybe disgusted. Until day 8 we never made it past one minute! And oh, what a smile he levied on us when we finally passed the 3 minute mark!

I vividly remember the time Lester Bowie asked me to drive three of them to Kingston for lunch, as they had no car. I guess I expected them to be deeply serious, philosophical folks, who simply talked about important subjects, jazz history, philosophy, and the like. It turns out much of lunch was devoted to them discussing how much they loved the new Superman movie. Plus, a couple of them were fans of Ronald Reagan. These guys had an amazing sense of humor behind the masks they presented. It’s easy to forget just how normal a completely wild artist can be during lunch.

What the Art Ensemble contributed is substantial. Along with Sun Ra they were one of the first jazz groups (if we can call them that as shorthand) to incorporate what we now call multimedia into performance. Poetry and theater were a huge part of their shows. It was, in fact, a show an experience— something that was designed to change you, infiltrate your mind, make you question your own reality. Deeply rooted in jazz history, but so much more than that, as they were all influenced by every kind of music imaginable, it was not beyond them to reference country music and Stockhasusen in the same gesture. The drummer, Don Moye, was a master of many styles of African drumming. Joseph Jarman, who in a certain way affected me the most, was a Buddhist practitioner, deeply involved in theater, and as far as I could tell, a bit nuts. In a good way. Malachi, the bassist was an in demand straight ahead player, deeply quiet, reserved. Roscoe in some sense seemed to be the leader. Or perhaps it was just that his own group was first on the scene, and led to the AEC’s formation and final lineup.

They all had a good time destroying our misconceptions. Avid members of the NRA, they brandished their reputation as revolutionaries, even as they made us laugh. Lester Bowie had all the magnetism in the world. Lester was truly an important figure in jazz and creative music. He had vision, integrity, and he was incredibly savvy in the business of music, he knew how to make money, and he helped his band mates do so.

These guys were like a rock band, they jumped in their vans and cruised all over the country and Europe, they lived together, they camped out together, they were truly a collective. They paid some serious dues. They were at the advent of an opening in the culture at large, and they jumped in and became amazingly successful, a model for what can be achieved with the most avant music imaginable.

Reading about the opportunities that were present for them in France in 1970 is revelatory and possibly depressing. They were welcomed with open arms into that culture, and played gigs all the time, 3 or 4 nights a week, just as they rehearsed all the time. In today’s world if you play in Paris once every six months, you’re damn lucky. AEC recorded six albums in one year! Can you imagine? They broke every mold.

AEC was seminal in the development of the AACM, an organization that changed jazz music as we know it today. One can only imagine the determination, the self- possession that this took in the mid -60’s. Racism dominated the landscape even more than it does today. They empowered themselves. They worked as hard as one can possibly work to mine the riches of every kind of Black music imaginable. They were fully dedicated to their vision. Spiritual, physical, mental, emotional. They knew they had something special. Importantly, they all (except Lester who was from St. Louis) came from an incredibly vibrant community, south side Chicago in the late 50s and early 60s, a neighborhood called Bronzeville. There was a time when that part of the world had music brimming from every street corner, according to this book. Great blues was everywhere, the originators of jazz music were playing down the block. Gospel, of course, everywhere. All that is gone. Gone! And it’s been gone for a hell of a long time.

When I listen to their music today, especially some of the live shows, I have to admit that the idea of the music is sometimes more agreeable to me than the actual sound. I mean, this is the most out music you can possibly imagine. In their Berlin Jazz Festival concert in 1991, during Ohnedaruth, after the head, Roscoe Mitchell takes a RAGING six minute saxophone solo. After about two minutes, you’re thinking he’s done. No, he’s not. It goes on and on, and it’s just plain intense! As if that’s not enough, Jarman starts screaming and wailing on his tenor as well. God, Almighty, you have to admire the stubbornness, the commitment of this proceeding. In the Mandel Hall concert they blast out sound for a good while on LOW instruments, bass drums, bass sax, minutes and minutes. They have 15 minute pieces that are all space and quiet. Texture!

These guys were signed to Atlantic records. Like a rock band. Then they moved to one the greatest of jazz labels, ECM. They made real money. And they were utterly uncompromising.

Roscoe is one of our greatest living instrumentalists. A true thinker who has explored many, many avenues of composition and improv. Roscoe’s still going strong. Lester Bowie, who sadly died at the early age of 58 from liver cancer, was possibly more of a conceptual artist than a technician. But he’s had a big effect on trumpet players and music at large. Hearing his brass fantasy band was great fun. He was one of the first people to show me that one band couldn’t possibly incorporate all of the needs of the music. So along with the experimentalism of the AEC he had groups that were more commercial in nature, easier for the average person to listen to. I would single out trumpeter Steve Bernstein, as a great example of someone who learned many lessons from Lester.

Malachi and Jarman are gone. Moye lives!

In my next episode, I’ll write more about the effect they had on the culture at large. I’ll also dive into the extraordinary transformation of Joseph Jarman over several decades.

Here are some tracks from their huge opus.

Live at Mandel Hall

Hail, We Now Sing Joy

Berlin Jazz Festival 1991

AEC with Fontella Bass (first few minutes are a diorama of their multitudinous passions)

Old Time Religion from “Jackson in Your House”