The Art Ensemble of Chicago stand as one of the very greatest of all leaderless groups in the long history of jazz, in large part due to a consistently evolving sound that’s now based upon a blossoming membership. Rouge Art’s new release The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris is a wonderfully unpredictable and often thrilling excursion into the unflagging primacy of the Art Ensemble as the outfit has indeed morphed into a chamber orchestra. The limited edition 2LP appears to be rapidly dwindling in number even before the release date of January 20, so do act fast or settle for the 2CD that’s also available.
Over a half century after formation, the Art Ensemble of Chicago is making new music that not only matters but is amongst the finest exploratory jazz on the current scene. The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris continues this thoroughly unexpected turn of events, though it won’t be surprising to those who got their wigs blown back by the goodness of We Are On the Edge (A 50th Anniversary Celebration), a 2LP/2CD released in 2019 by Pi Recordings (vinyl on Erased Tapes) that captured two performances from October 2018 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The recordings on The Sixth Decade date from February 7, 2020 (roughly a month before COVID knocked the world into a tailspin), capturing a performance at Festival Sons d’hiver, held in Maison des Arts de Créteil in Créteil, a suburb of Paris. The group, similar in line-up to the one heard on We Are on the Edge but with some key differences, features founders Roscoe Mitchell on sopranino and alto saxophones and Famoudou Don Moye on drums and percussion; the other original members, trumpeter Lester Bowie, tenor saxophonist Joseph Jarman, and bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut, have passed.
From Paris to Paris reflects a return to the place where the group began, or more appropriately, the place where they began using the name Art Ensemble of Chicago, and it was also where Moye joined in 1970. It was a productive period for the group even before Moye joined, as the Ensemble were part of a brief explosion of avant-garde jazz activity in France (by expatriates and brief visitors). The documentation of the Ensemble’s initial Paris stay (1968-’72) is in the neighborhood of 15 albums.
The incarnation of the Ensemble heard on The Sixth Decade includes vocals (bass singer Roco Córdova and soprano Erina Newkirk), spoken word (the spectacular Moor Mother), strings (violinist Jean Cook, violist Eddy Kwon, cellist Tomeka Reid), trombone and tuba (Simon Sieger), flute and piccolo (Nicole Mitchell), and piano (Brett Carson), this last instrument absent from We Are on the Edge (the Ensemble had previously collaborated on record with pianists Cecil Taylor and Don Pullen). All these expansions reflect the vitality of Mitchell and Moye’s vision for a group moving forward.
Additionally, three bassists (Silvia Bolognesi, Junius Paul, and Jaribu Shahid, who first played with the Ensemble on 2004’s Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City) fill the void left by Malachi Favors, while veteran Hugh Ragin handles Bowie’s role with aplomb (adding flugelhorn for good measure). Along with Moye, percussion (a.k.a. “little instruments”) was historically shared by all the members, which brings us to The Sixth Decade’s four percussionists (Dudu Kouaté, Enoch Williamson, Babu Atiba, Doussou Touré). That there is a conductor (Steed Cowart) reflects the record’s chamber orchestral (and operatic) reality.
But there’s also some New Orleans-like brassy funk on disc two, so don’t get the idea that this expanded Ensemble has went all European on us. Oh no way: this is still “Great Black Music: Ancient to Future” at full potency. Directly related to the Ensemble’s motto is “Odwalla,” a wonderful choral-inclined piece that would’ve likely brought smiles to the faces of both Mary Lou Williams and Andrew Hill. And the purposeful spoken words threaded throughout the set lend a poetic sensibility that harkens back to the Last Poets sure, but more appropriately, Jayne Cortez and the Jeanne Lee of Archie Shepp’s Blasé.
Those looking for improv heat will not be disappointed, as there is plenty to heard, including two pieces explicitly labeled as such. The set opens in a decidedly Modernist-avant classical zone (lovers of the drone take note). “Introduction to Cards” is a particularly rich dive into barbed blowing, but then the relatively succinct “Cards” itself swings matters smack dab back into the chamber. Impressively, the progression of the entire performance unwinds with natural assurance.
The Paris circularity is complemented by the expansion of the lineup, which harkens back the Ensemble’s roots in the AACM (pictures of Bowie, Mitchell, and Jarman with fellow Chicago guy and AACM alum Anthony Braxton accompany the record). It’s easy to imagine these performances giving Mitchell and Moye a sense of fulfillment (the satisfaction can be heard in Mitchell’s introduction of the group) but the music is also evidence of progress in action, which is what defines the Art Ensemble of Chicago at their best. So it is with The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
