The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jazz styles and plays many instruments, including "little instruments": bells, bicycle horns, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and various forms of percussion. The musicians would wear costumes and face paint while performing. These characteristics combined to make the ensemble's performances both aural and visual. While playing in Europe in 1969, five hundred instruments were used.
Roscoe Mitchell is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". The Penguin Guide to Jazz described him as "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz; All About Jazz stated in 2004 that he had been "at the forefront of modern music" for more than 35 years. Critic Jon Pareles in The New York Times has mentioned that Mitchell "qualifies as an iconoclast". In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Mitchell is known for cofounding the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).
David William Sanborn was an American alto saxophonist. Sanborn worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and released his first solo album, Taking Off, in 1975. He was active as a session musician, and played on numerous albums by artists including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Sting, the Eagles, Rickie Lee Jones, James Brown, George Benson, Carly Simon, Elton John, Bryan Ferry and the Rolling Stones. He released more than 20 albums and won six Grammy awards.
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Julius Arthur Hemphill was a jazz composer and saxophone player. He performed mainly on alto saxophone, less often on soprano and tenor saxophones and flute.
Arthur Murray Blythe was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. He was described by critic Chris Kelsey as displaying "one of the most easily recognizable alto sax sounds in jazz, big and round, with a fast, wide vibrato and an aggressive, precise manner of phrasing" and furthermore as straddling the avant garde and traditionalist jazz, often with bands featuring unusual instrumentation.
Craig S. Harris is an American jazz trombonist, who started working with Sun Ra in 1976. He also has worked with Abdullah Ibrahim, David Murray, Lester Bowie, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Charlie Haden. He has recorded since 1983 as leader for India Navigation, Soul Note and JMT. For the latter he recorded with two groups. The Tailgater's Tales was a quintet with clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Eddie Allen, Anthony Cox on double bass, and Pheeroan akLaff on drums. His large ensemble Cold Sweat was a tribute to the music of James Brown.
Black Tie White Noise is the 18th studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 5 April 1993 through Savage Records in the United States and Arista Records in the United Kingdom. Conceived following Bowie's marriage to model Iman and the disbandment of his rock band Tin Machine, it was recorded throughout 1992 between studios in Montreux, Los Angeles and New York City. Bowie co-produced with his Let's Dance (1983) collaborator Nile Rodgers, who voiced dissatisfaction with the project in later decades. The album features several guest appearances, including previous collaborators Mike Garson and Mick Ronson, and new arrivals Lester Bowie and Chico O'Farrill.
James Carter is an American jazz musician widely recognized for his technical virtuosity on saxophones and a variety of woodwinds. He is the cousin of noted jazz violinist Regina Carter.
"Impressions" is a jazz standard composed by John Coltrane. Coltrane only recorded the composition during two studio dates—on June 20, 1962 and March 6, 1963. The 1962 recordings were released on the 2002 deluxe edition of the 1962 album Coltrane and elsewhere. The 1963 recordings were released on the 2018 posthumous album Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album.
Malachi Richard Thompson, was an American avant-garde jazz trumpet player. In addition to his own work as a bandleader, Thompson was known for his work in the brass ensemble led by fellow trumpeter Lester Bowie.
Joseph Bowie is an American jazz trombonist and vocalist. The brother of trumpeter Lester Bowie, Joseph is known for leading the jazz-punk group Defunkt and for membership in the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.
Talkin' About Life and Death is an album by Polish jazz band, Miłość, and American jazz musician, Lester Bowie. The songs were recorded in two days in July 1997 in Gdańsk.
Kury was a Polish rock group. The band was founded in 1992 by Ryszard Tymon Tymański. Kury played experimental rock music and their style evolved in time towards a more electronic direction. Their album P.O.L.O.V.I.R.U.S., released in 1998, was a fictional compilation of pastiche songs deriding the condition of Polish popular music. After Jacek Olter's suicide in January 2001, the band continued its activity playing concerts with Jacek Stromski, Rory Walsh and Kuba Staruszkiewicz on drums. The last concert was in December 2003, after which Tymański disbanded the group. The last album containing live recordings entitled Martwe gitary was due to be released in 2008 but never did. In 2011 and 2012 the band played a couple of concerts.
Frank Catalano is an American jazz saxophonist.
Frank Lacy is an American jazz trombonist who has spent many years as a member of the Mingus Big Band.
Congliptious is a 1968 album by Roscoe Mitchell's Art Ensemble which later became the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It was released on the Nessa label and features performances by Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and Robert Crowder. "Tutankhamen" is a bass solo by Malahi Favors, "Tkhke" is an alto saxophone solo by Roscoe Mitchell and "Jazz Death?" is a trumpet solo by Lester Bowie with the full ensemble performing "Congliptious/Old".
Live in Paris is a double live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in Paris and first released on the BYG Actuel label in Japan as two separate volumes in 1974. It was issued on CD by Charly Records under the title 'Live In Paris' presumably to avoid confusion with the Delmark 'Live At Delmark Hall' album, and then later issued in the US, with the same artwork and design, by Fuel 2000 Records in the US. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Fontella Bass and Don Moye. Despite reissues identifying it as "Live In Paris" and claiming a date of 5 October 1969, it was actually a radio broadcast from performances in Chateauvailon on 13 August 1970.
Andrzej Grzegorz Przybielski was a Polish jazz trumpeter associated with the avant-garde jazz and free jazz scenes.
Slipping and Sliding is an album by the all-star jazz group The Leaders. It was recorded in June 1993 and January 1994 in Brooklyn, New York, and was released in 1994 by the Japanese label Sound Hills Records. The album features performances by tenor saxophonist Chico Freeman, alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, trumpeter Lester Bowie, pianist Kirk Lightsey, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Don Moye.
