Art Ensemble Of Chicago

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the founding members. The Art Ensemble is notable for its integration of musical styles spanning jazz's entire history and for their multi-instrumentalism, especially the use of what they termed "little instruments" in addition to the traditional jazz lineup; "little instruments" can include bicycle horns, bells, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and a vast array of percussion instruments (including found objects)

Jazzfestival Saalfelden 2025

by Vincenzo Roggero
August 29, 2025

Jazzfestival SaalfeldenVarious venues Land Salzburg, Austria August 21-24, 2025 One hundred and ninety artists from twenty-six countries, nearly thirty thousand attendees, eight different venues, more than sixty concerts, and a record number of tickets sold. These are just numbers, but they confirm how the Saalfelden Jazz Festival--now in its forty-fifth ...

Freedom Art Quartet: First Dance

by Carl Medsker
July 12, 2025

Raucous, brash and freewheeling, First Dance by The Freedom Art Quartet is rooted in the past yet fresh and contemporary. The album should sound familiar to those who have ventured outside the mainstream and spent time with Ornette Coleman and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago. Those forces are strong in the band, but labeling them retro ...

Moving On Music: Literal Magic

by Ian Patterson
March 4, 2025

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of Moving On Music (MOM), one of Ireland's finest music promotion companies. There will probably be little hoopla, no big party and probably not even a cake. Instead, it will be business as usual for the small but industrious team of four, and that means bringing the best music of all ...

Microplastique: Blare Blow Bloom!

by Lawrence Peryer
December 6, 2024

Chicago's experimental music scene welcomes a new voice as Microplastique, four multi-instrumentalists, release their debut album, Blare Blow Bloom! (Irritable Mystic Records), on December 6, 2024. Formed in April 2023, the group includes Ben Zucker, Molly Jones, Josh Harlow and Adam Shead, with Shead composing and leading. Blare Blow Bloom! documents Microplastique's July 2024 ...

Phil Haynes, Janel Leppin, & Ndududzo Makhathini

by Maurice Hogue
June 24, 2024

Last year veteran drummer Phil Haynes set out on a mission to document his past recording and music history; the first step, and a large one, was the publication of a book, “Chasing The Masters," which was paralleled by a 60-plus compilation of songs by various groups he led or played with. One of those bands ...

Bergamo Jazz Festival 2024

by Vincenzo Roggero
April 2, 2024

Bergamo Jazz Festival Bergamo Varie sedi 21-24.3.2024 La quarantacinquesima edizione di Bergamo Jazz coincide con il passaggio di testimone nella direzione artistica da Maria Pia De Vito allo statunitense Joe Lovano, pi�� volte ospite come musicista della rassegna orobica. La formula �� quella consolidata da anni: tre serate con doppio concerto ...

Louis Sclavis, David Le��n, Roby Glod & Joy Guidry

by Maurice Hogue
March 28, 2024

Reed players have taken over the house this week. The eminent clarinetist Louis Sclavis stars in an excellent quartet using music, text and spoken word to create a moody sonic landscape out of short stories, poems and aphorisms by French and African authors. Other European saxophonists heard are Luxembourg's Roby Glod in a familiar setting with ...

Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me: A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit

by Chris May
February 23, 2024

The first few bars of Open Me: A Higher Consciousness Of Sound And Spirit promise the listener is in for a treat. Corey Wilkes' muted trumpet plays Miles Davis' “All Blues" counterpointed by Alex Harding's rugged baritone saxophone and Kahil El'Zabar's ankle bells and kalimba. Here is Ethnic Heritage Ensemble in all its enchanting bare-bones singularity, ...

Rich Halley, Ethan Philion and Other Releases

by Jerome Wilson
January 30, 2024

Here are a few more albums from 2023 that deserve some belated recognition. Rich Halley Fire Within Pine Eagle Records 2023 This is tenor saxophonist Rich Halley's third recording with a quartet that also features Matthew Shipp on piano, Michael Bisio on bass, and Newman Taylor Baker on ...