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Art Ensemble of Chicago

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that emerged in the late 1960s from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, or AACM for short. Members of the later group played under various names in the mid-1960s, including as the Roscoe Mitchell Sextet on the 1966 album Sound. All the musicians played several instruments. Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell played alto and tenor saxophone as well as other saxophones, flute and clarinet. Lester Bowie played trumpet.

Music and breakthrough

In 1968, after a farewell concert in Evanston, Illinois, the group left for Paris, where it played at the Théâtre du Vieux Colombier. There it got the name Art Ensemble of Chicago, because a French promoter added of Chicago to it. The name stuck, because the members felt it expressed their collaboration better. In 1969 A Jackson in Your House, Message to Our Folks and People in Sorrow appeared, among others, and in 1970 Certain Blacks and Go Home. Lester Bowie died in 1999, Malachi Favors in 2004 and Joseph Jarman in 2019.

Influence

The ensemble combined many jazz styles and also used small instruments such as bells, bicycle horns, party whistles and wind gongs. On stage the members wore costumes and Jarman painted his face, to represent everyone in the universe. In this way the ensemble showed that jazz did not have to stay with Western instruments.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Thème de Yoyo and notice the small instruments and percussion alongside the horns. Try to hear how silence and sound alternate.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsAACM and the Chicago avant-garde