How strange that there are two studio albums by the Art Ensemble of Chicago issued in 2003, both without Lester Bowie, on two different labels. The ECM album is a tribute to the late Bowie and is made up of the surviving members of the working Art Ensemble -- Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, and Don Moye -- and the album at hand is a reunion of sorts with composer and multi-instrumentalist Joseph Jarman, who retired in the early '90s. While the former album is on the group's American label, ECM, and is a formal tribute to Bowie, it is the latter that more formally encapsulates the Art Ensemble's classic vision of free improvisation, non-Western folk traditions, and jazz as one in the same brew. And yes, Bowie's hard-swinging humorous presence is missed, and to the band's credit, they've made no attempt to fill the void on either recording. The Meeting is not, however, a reacquaintance with Jarman. His composition, "Hail We Now Sing Joy," a hard bopping, scatting tribute to Buddha Shakyamuni, opens the album and creates a space where his trad jazz roots and Bowie's ongoing sense of history are melded by the band, which negotiates the territory with great verve and taste. "It's the Sign of the Times," written by Favors, revisits with deeper wisdom, expansive texture, and more pronounced dynamics the territory the Art Ensemble explored on its first album, People in Sorrow, in 1967. Each member solos for an extended period before the band comes together in a final movement that encapsulates all the varying themes. Almost 19 minutes in length, it's a portrait of the Art Ensemble as individuals coming together to form an inseparable bond and commitment to the creation of sound as music; the pace is slow and purposeful and the expressionism created by the unit is out of this world. "Tech Ritter and the Megabytes" is one of those beautiful Mitchell pieces that is a space-age nursery rhyme (à la "Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin' Shoes"). Only four and a half minutes in length, it offers striated interwoven melodies along the shimmering harmonic edge of the blues. Three of the remaining four selections are group improvisations broken only by Mitchell's title composition of fat R&B and swing-styled horn lines. Of these, it is the dreamy percussion and woodwind-oriented "Wind and Drum" that is the most moving as it walks the line of spatial relationships to silence, lyric, and non-determinate unfolding. The sense of play that the AEC does so well is what drives "The Train to lo," the album's closer. Bells, whistles, basses played as drums, and sopranino saxophones create lines of communication along attenuated rhythms and faltering interludes that nonetheless create more space for dialogue as they wander in and out of the mix. This is a glorious reunion album, one that delights as it provokes. - Thom Jurek
The Meeting fue el segundo disco del Art Ensemble Of Chicago para el regreso a los estudios de grabación en 2003. El trio original y superviviente homenajeó al trompetista Lester Bowie en Tribute To Lester (ECM, 2003). A estos se unió Joseph Jarman (alejado del grupo desde el inicio de los años 90) en The Meeting. En este caso, lejos de ser un homenaje, es una muestra del universo musical de esta veterana formación (que iniciaba su discografía en 1967 con People In Sorrow).
El inicio es gozosamente hard-bopero con reminiscencias Davisianas en forma de scat. Continúan los 19 minutos de It’s The Sign Of The Times. Allí los cuatro músicos trabajan individualmente para concluir la pieza con su reunión en el trabajo musical conjunto. Tech Ritter and the Megabytes y The Meeting, compuestas ambas por Roscoe Mitchell, muestran un carácter más cercano al de composiciones cerradas que a la libertad en la ejecución característica del grupo. Wind And Drum, Amin Bidness y The Trian To Io son una muestra dela citada característica, con todo tipo de percusiones, distintos ambientes sonoros y la interacción entre un aparente (e ilusorio) caos. Resalta la tranquilidad de la primera de las piezas citadas.
El Art Ensemble ha vuelto, demostrando en sus grabaciones que continúan en plena forma creativa. - José Francisco Tapiz, Tomajazz 2004
Tracks
01. Hall We Now Sing Joy (Joseph Jarman)
02. It's the Sign of the Times (Malachi Favors)
03. Tech Ritter and the Megabytes (Roscoe Mitchel)
04. Wind and Drum (The Art Ensemble of Chicago)
05. The Meeting (Roscoe Mitchell)
06. Amin Bidness (The Art Ensemble of Chicago)
07. The Train to lo (The Art Ensemble of Chicago)
MALACHI FAVORS MAGHOSTUT bass / percussion
DON MOYE drums / african drums / congas / bongos
JOSEPH JARMAN wooden flutes / C, E-flat and bass flutes / clarinet / sopranino, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones / percussion, wooden stand drum, bells, gong, vibraphone / Whistles
ROSCOE MITCHELL piccolo flute / flute / bass and great bass recorders / sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor and bass saxophones / percussion
Recorded at Audio for Arts, Madison, Wisconsin 2003
Pi Recordings - P107