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Roscoe Mitchell recommendations


John B

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It was issued in 1978, so you've had xxx years

He's had xxix years actually. Not wishing to be picky.

(mmvii-mcmlxxviii=xxix)

I am what, XXX years old, and buying jazz for X years, and only <X opportunities when the vinyl crossed my hands. Now that I don't care about vinyl, I will take the opportunity!

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What about this upcoming ECM release?

B000MX7Y4K.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V44023201_.jpg

Roscoe Mitchell is one of music's innovators, for more than 40 years a restless explorer of new forms, ideas and concepts. In 1967 he formed the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble which soon metamorphosed into the polystylistic Art Ensemble of Chicago, regarded by many critics as the most important band of the 1970s and 80s: its ECM albums including 'Nice Guys', 'Full Force' and 'Urban Bushmen' won numerous prizes. A hugely influential jazz musician and saxophonist - one of the most significant of the post-Coltrane era - Mitchell has also made his mark in new composition with numerous works for ensembles of all sizes.

'Composition/Improvisation Nos 1, 2 & 3' creatively juxtaposes Mitchell's structured music and his concept of open form. It also introduces a new band, put together by Mitchell and his English contemporary Evan Parker for a concert at Munich's Muffathalle in September 2004. This live recording features their epic journey through music of many changing - and surprising - moods, from lyrical episodes to plateaux of intensity.

On the group's American side, Corey Wilkes and Jaribu Shahid are also members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Wilkes, Shahid, and Tani Tabbal also play with other Mitchell groups, his Quintet and his Note Factory band. Craig Taborn also plays in Note Factory and Nils Bultmann and Anders Svanoe have guested with it. Evan Parker is frequently hailed as the most innovative European saxophonist. Philipp Wachsmann, Paul Lytton and Barry Guy have played extensively with him - as on ECM's albums with his Electro-Acoustic Ensemble. Neil Metcalfe and John Rangecroft were both in John Stevens's Spontaneous Music Ensemble the legendary flagship band of European free improvising.

Personnel: Roscoe Mitchell - (soprano saxophone), Evan Parker - (soprano and tenor saxophones), Anders Svanoe - (alto saxophone, clarinet), John Rangecroft - (clarinet), Neil Metcalfe - (flute), Corey Wilkes - (trumpet, flugelhorn), Nils Bultman - (viola), Philipp Wachsmann - (violin), Marcio Mattos - (cello), Craig Taborn - (piano), Jaribu Shahid - (double-bass), Barry Guy - (double-bass), Tani Tabbal - (drums, percussion), Paul Lytton - (drums, percussion)

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Here it is: previous mention

Ohhhhh - thanks. I saw that thread but I seem to have skim read the list...

Is there a release date set for this one yet?

In UK April 9, but US releases of ECM seem usually to be later...

Hilariously the product page for this CD at amazon.co.uk lists the following promotion:

Save £0.02 when you spend £100,000.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.co.uk. Enter code M7575XH9 at checkout.

That should tempt anyone who is on the fence.

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I'm really curious about this release. Fascinating line-up. I spoke to a couple of the band about this (in a roundabout sort of way - they mentioned they'd just done a session with Roscoe and Evan - I assume it has to have been this), who seemed to enjoy it an awful lot. I don't know what I imagine it sounds like, but things like that intrigue me more and more!

On the subject - very loosely - of US/UK improvisers - it was fascinating to have my first listen to RM's 'SII Examples' a couple of days after hearing John Butcher play solo...

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What about this upcoming ECM release?

B000MX7Y4K.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V44023201_.jpg

I've received an advance copy some weeks ago. Very enjoyable, strange as it might sound <_< Excellent performance from everyone. I liked particularly the strings, and Anders Svanoe on alto and baritone is definitely a name to watch (never heard of him before). It's extremely long (79:12), but it flows quite nicely. I found it quite similar to the recent Evan Parker PSI recording, Crossing the River, which shares some musicians (Mattos, Wachsmann, Metcalfe, Rangecroft). Wonderful solo by Corey Wilkes on track #6 (a cross between Bill Dixon and Baikida Carroll).

luca

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  • 2 weeks later...

Recently a member asked if I had any pictures from the "Maze" session and I realized I should have used the lp photo for the cd issue. Then George Lewis contacted me about reproducing the shot in his history of the AACM. George wanted a high quality scan and I ultimately contacted Mark Sheldon for advise on a scanner. My new scanner arrived Monday and I have been learning to use the device. :o

Anyway, here is a reduced version of the scan.

Not sure how the formatting screw-up happened, but you get the idea.

More importantly I neglected to say Ann took the pic.

Edited by Chuck Nessa
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Roscoe Mitchell plays on another new album, Eric Hartz's "Antelopes", which was released March 22 on the Shortwave label. Personnel also includes Corey Wilkes, Bernie Worrell and Richard Davis.

It appears that the album is released under the artist name "Voltress", after checking out the label's website.

Edited by Hot Ptah
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I don't know if Mitchell appears with Davis on Antelopes. Here is the article from Isthmus magazine which gave me all of the information that I have about it. I have not purchased it yet:

Heavy hitters

Eric Hartz snares jazz and funk greats for the new Voltress album

Tom Laskin on Thursday 03/15/2007,

Eric Hartz has a long history in Madison music, both as the drummer with Hum Machine and as the driving force behind Cancer Records. But as his alt-rock-flavored band wound down and Cancer became less of a preoccupation, he thought about tweaking his atmospheric studio project Voltress, a synth-heavy affair that had released one CD.

Determined to make a second album, Hartz began writing music that was very different from what he’d done before. That’s when things got interesting. He has just released Antelopes, a genre-mixing new Voltress album that features musical heavyweights from the jazz and funk worlds like Richard Davis, Roscoe Mitchell and Bernie Worrell.

“I always had more jazz in my record collection,” says the self-taught composer. “And I thought: ‘I don’t have anyone to impress anymore. The days of me being on the road and trying to snag a record contract -– that’s not important anymore.’ So I kept very true to myself on Antelopes. It became a lot of the things that I was hearing in my head. I wanted to integrate more of the avant-garde, long-song type of feeling, and that’s what I did.”

Hartz had always planned to use local players he’d come to know through Hum Machine, and a number of them are on the album. But when bassist Matt Rogers provided him with an introduction to UW professor and jazz bass great Richard Davis, he decided to begin pursuing some of his musical heroes.

“It was very much on a hope and a prayer,” he says. “I didn’t know any of these people. But I called Roscoe Mitchell and went over and played what I had for him, and I just found that these musicians I’d admired were accessible.”

The album was recorded in stages at Smart Studios. Logistics were such that few of the players ever got together in the studio at the same time, which meant Hartz (who plays drums and synthesizer on the album) found himself communicating his musical vision one-on-one just before the tape started rolling.

“I tell you, it was some of the most nerve-wracking times of my life getting someone like Bernie Worrell or Richard Davis in the studio and instructing them about what I wanted,” he laughs. “I almost threw up a few times.”

The results of those sometimes queasy hours in the studio are impressive. Antelopes contains just two long tracks, and each one explores a variety of styles, from outright free-jazz blowing courtesy of saxophonist Mitchell and trumpeter Corey Wilkes to portentous art-metal that sometimes recalls Teutonic prog giants like Can and Amon Düül.

Hartz is pleased with the disc, and so is the album’s distributor, Redeye, which he says is making a point of pushing it in the jazz market. Instead of using the old Cancer imprint, he’s founded a new label, Shortwave, which is geared to vinyl- and download-only releases. (For folks who just can’t get enough of those shiny reflective discs, the handsomely silk-screened vinyl package for Antelopes also includes a CD.)

Hartz would love to put together a few live performances of Antelopes, but after paying for studio time, compensating his musicians and pressing the album, his finances are stretched thin. “The idea is to get the album picked up by a larger label,” he notes. “That will make playing live easier.”

Although no local concert is in the offing, Hartz is hosting a local CD-release event on Thursday, March 22, at MadCity Music Exchange, where the album will also be on sale. He says Mitchell, Davis and several other local musicians involved in the recording process are slated to attend, and he plans on having a brief Q&A with the musicians after previewing the album for attendees.

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