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Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell is an NEA Jazz Master

One of the top saxophonists to come out of Chicago's AACM movement of the mid-'60s, Roscoe Mitchell is a particularly strong and consistently adventurous improviser long associated with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. After getting out of the military, Mitchell led a hard bop sextet in Chicago (1961) which gradually became much freer. He was a member of Muhal Richard Abrams's Experimental Band and a founding member of the AACM in 1965. Mitchell's monumental Sound album (1966) introduced a new way of freely improvising, utilizing silence as well as high energy and "little instruments" as well as conventional horns. Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors were on that date and Mitchell's 1967 follow-up Old/Quartet. With the addition of Joseph Jarman and Philip Wilson (who was later succeeded by Famoudou Don Moye), the Art Ensemble of Chicago was born. The colorful unit was one of the most popular groups in the jazz avant-garde and Mitchell was an integral part of the band. Roscoe Mitchell (who, in addition to his main horns, plays clarinet, flute, piccolo, oboe, baritone and bass saxophones) also was involved in individual projects through the years and has recorded as a leader for Delmark, Nessa, Sackville, Moers Music, 1750 Arch, Black Saint, Cecma and Silkheart in settings ranging from large ensembles to unaccompanied solo concerts.


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Book Review

Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM by Paul Steinbeck

Read "Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM by Paul Steinbeck" reviewed by Tom Spargo


Sound Experiments: The Music of the AACM Paul Steinbeck 272 Pages ISBN-13: 978-0-226-82953-1University of Chicago PressHardback 2022/ Paperback 2023 Paul Steinbeck's Sound Experiments is a historical narrative and technical analysis of the music of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Steinbeck traces the chronology of this wildly creative organization from its origins in the mid-1960s to the present day through the course ten chapters, each dedicated to a particularly influential album, composition, or live ...

2
Live Review

Ostrava Days 2023

Read "Ostrava Days 2023" reviewed by Martin Longley


Klub Parník, Plato, Triple Hall Karolina, etc. Ostrava, Czech Republic August 28-September 2, 2023 Ostrava Days happens once every two years, mostly dedicated to the well-being of new music, composed for varying sizes of ensembles, right up to a fully-bloated orchestra. Sometimes, though, works will be penned for mere solo performers. It has always had extended ears for jazz, improvisation and electronic musics, as well as rock'n'roll being an increasingly strong influence on moderne ...

6
Album Review

Art Ensemble Of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris

Read "The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris" reviewed by John Sharpe


Having first come to international prominence in Paris at the end of the '60s, it seems fitting for the Rogue Art imprint to celebrate the Art Ensemble Of Chicago's progression into their sixth decade in the same city. This double CD documents the performance of an extended AEC at the Sons d'hiver Festival in February 2019. Only reedman & composer Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye survive from the original quintet but, rather than accept this as a limitation, ...

7
Album Review

Ivo Perelman: Reed Rapture in Brooklyn

Read "Reed Rapture in Brooklyn" reviewed by Jeff Schwartz


Is this album fundamentally unreviewable? Are there jazz fans who do not immediately know if they need an 11-hour collection of 103 improvised duets between Ivo Perelman and a dozen saxophonists and clarinetists? It is at least describable. Perelman is faithful to his tenor, while his partners bring examples of nearly every type of saxophone, from soprillo to contrabass, as well as most of the clarinet family. Although all tracks are free improvisations, the default mode is ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Roscoe Mitchell Trio & Orchestra, Christian McBride New Jawn, and more

Read "Roscoe Mitchell Trio & Orchestra, Christian McBride New Jawn, and more" reviewed by David Brown


This week, one of the great innovators in creative music, saxophonist/composer Roscoe Mitchell will be featured. I've been enjoying Mitchell's reworking of trio improvisations as transcribed for orchestra. We'll also check out Prime the new release from bassist Christen McBride's New Jawn. Plus, new works and recent finds. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 01:00 Aruán Ortiz Trio “Shaw 'Nuff (Siento un bombo)" from Serranías Sketchbook for Piano Trio (Intakt Records) 02:00 ...

9
Album Review

Art Ensemble of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris

Read "The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Recorded live in Paris in February 2020, The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris. presents Art Ensemble Of Chicago—as defiantly daring avant-garde as that first night in Paris, 1969 —giving no quarter whatsoever in their lifelong, diasporic pursuit of creation unbound. Breaking at the pace of a dream, surviving co-founders saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and drummer Famoudou Don Moye return to the moment of conception with a two hour, double disc set The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris, ...

Album Review

Art Ensemble Of Chicago: The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris

Read "The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala


Parigi è città fatale per l'Art Ensemble of Chicago: nel 1969 fu traguardo del prodigio artistico e umano preparato negli anni precedenti da Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors e Joseph Jarman, che avevano incrociato le proprie esperienze dapprima al Wilson Junior College di Chicago, nel 1961, poi nel lavoro con la Experimental Band di Muhal Richard Abrams, che dal '66 vide anche la partecipazione di Lester Bowie. Infine, nella formidabile attività musicale, didattica e sociale dell'Association for the Advancement of Creative ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn, Joey Defrancesco Trio, Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O, and More

Jazz This Week: Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn, Joey Defrancesco Trio, Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

As 2014 marches inexorably toward its conclusion, it's shaping up to be  another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis. This week's noteworthy performances include a visit from one of the top jazz organists in the business; the long-awaited return of a major jazz innovator, in duo with one of today's most in-demand keyboardists; plus a whole lot of holiday-themed jazz, and more. Let's go to the highlights.... Tonight, organist Joey DeFrancesco and his trio return to ...

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Video / DVD

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A Roscoe Mitchell Sampler

STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: A Roscoe Mitchell Sampler

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

When multi-instrumentalist and composer Roscoe Mitchell performs with keyboardist Craig Taborn next Friday, December 5 at The Stage at KDHX, the concert sponsored by New Music Circle will be his first St. Louis appearance since the 1990s. After first gaining wide attention in the 1960s as a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musician, Mitchell has gone on to combine improvised music with more formal methods of composition, putting him ...

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Performance / Tour

New Music Circle 2014-15 Season to Include Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn, Tim Berne, Thumbscrew, and More

New Music Circle 2014-15 Season to Include Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn, Tim Berne, Thumbscrew, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

New Music Circle has announced their 2014-15 season, with seven concerts featuring what looks to be an intriguing mix of edgy jazz and improvised music, electronics, and contemporary composition. The schedule kicks off with a concert by Thumbscrew, featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, on Friday, September 12 at Joe's Cafe, the “house concert" venue at 6014 Kingsbury Ave in the Central West End. All NYC-based, Thumbscrew's members first worked together as the rhythm section ...

1

Contest

Enter the "Roscoe Mitchell - Conversations II" Giveaway!

Enter the "Roscoe Mitchell - Conversations II" Giveaway!

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Wide Hive Records “Roscoe Mitchell - Conversations II“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on August 25th. Click here to enter the contest (Tracking Roscoe Mitchell at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.) Good luck! Your Friends at Wide Hive Records About Conversations II Roscoe Mitchell is an unmistakably unique icon of modern composition and jazz and with the second ...

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Performance / Tour

Mills College Premieres Renowned Musician Roscoe Mitchell's Compositions

Mills College Premieres Renowned Musician Roscoe Mitchell's Compositions

Source: Katie Ismael

Lesser-known side of the iconic jazz performer and Mills College professor to be showcased at the Littlefield Concert Hall on March 31 The Mills College Music Department is proud to present a concert of recent works by its Distinguished Darius Milhaud Professor of Music Roscoe Mitchell. Acclaimed for its academic excellence and innovation, the Music Department announces the West Coast orchestral premiere of the legendary artist's distinctive new compositions on Saturday, March 31, at 8:00 pm in the Jeannik Méquet ...

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Recording

Delmark Now Distributes Sackville Records; Roscoe Mitchell's "Quartet," 1975

Delmark Now Distributes Sackville Records; Roscoe Mitchell's "Quartet," 1975

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Good news for modern jazz appreciators: selected titles in the legendary Sackville Records catalog will now be available through Delmark. It involves the avant jazz catalog and, so I hear, may eventually include unreleased recordings. In keeping with the welcome turn of events I'll be looking today at one of the early Sackville masterworks, Roscoe Mitchell's 1975 live recording Quartet (Sackville SKCD2- 2009). I've had this recording on vinyl since it first came out, so I view it as an ...

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Interview

On Roscoe Mitchell

On Roscoe Mitchell

Source: Ars Nova Workshop

On Thursday, March 17, Ars Nova Workshop presents Archer Spade and Drew Ceccato performing the work of Roscoe Mitchell, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). For this special night in ANW’s Composer Portrait series, Archer Spade, a duo of Philadelphians Nick Millevoi (guitar) and Daniel Blacksberg (trombone), will unite with Drew Ceccato (woodwinds), who is currently studying with Mitchell at Mills College. The trio will be performing ...

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Recording

Roscoe Mitchell/the Note Factory - Far Side (ECM 2010)

Roscoe Mitchell/the Note Factory - Far Side (ECM 2010)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell has had a long and productive career with has included long stints in the AACM and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, along with an ambitious schedule of solo works. This album reunites him with his octet The Note Factory consisting Mitchell on saxophones and flutes, Corey Wilkes on trumpet and flugelhorn, Craig Taborn and Vijay Iyer on piano, Jaribu Shahid on bass, Harrison Bankhead on bass and cello and Tani Tabbal and Vincent Davis on ...

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Performance / Tour

Big Deep - Benefit Concert for Deep Listening Institute

Big Deep - Benefit Concert for Deep Listening Institute

Source: All About Jazz

On Saturday, April 18, 2009 at 8 pm the Friends of Deep Listening Institute will host Big Deep, a benefit concert at The Kitchen in New York City. The lineup of performances include a duo with Roscoe Mitchell and Pauline Oliveros, the Deep Listening Band with Stuart Dempster, David Gamper and Pauline Oliveros, video artist Benton-C Bainbridge and an afterparty with DJ Olive and DJ Oliveros.

In addition to these special performances, Deep Listening Institute will be honoring Roscoe Mitchell ...

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Award / Grant

Deep Listening Golden Ear Award Presentation to Roscoe Mitchell as Part of Big Deep - Benefit Concert

Deep Listening Golden Ear Award Presentation to  Roscoe Mitchell as Part of Big Deep - Benefit Concert

Source: All About Jazz

The Friends of Deep Listening Institute Presents Big Deep

A benefit concert for Deep Listening Institute, Ltd.

With special presentation of Deep Listening Golden Ear award to Roscoe Mitchell

Saturday, April 18, 2009 8 pm

The Kitchen 512 W 19th St New York, NY

On Saturday, April 18 at 8 pm, Deep Listening Institute will be honoring Roscoe Mitchell with the 2009 Deep Listening Golden Ear award as part of Big Deep, a benefit ...

Sam Newsome
saxophone, soprano
Tom Weeks
guitar, electric
Tumi Árnason
saxophone

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

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The Ritual and the...

Astral Spirits
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2021

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Dots - Works For...

Wide Hide Records
2021

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