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.
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.
The Meeting is a reunion studio album released by the jazz group the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEOC). It was recorded during the spring of 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin and released on August 19, 2003, on the international label Pi Recordings.
Live at the 6th Tokyo Music Joy is a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy recorded in February 1990 for the Japanese DIW label. It is the only recording to showcase both of the groups that Lester Bowie established and features performances by the Art Ensemble, the Brass Fantasy and both bands.
Numbers 1 & 2 is a 1967 album by Lester Bowie featuring a line-up which later became the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It was released on the Nessa label and features performances by Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors, and Joseph Jarman.
Bap-Tizum is a 1972 live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival held at the Otis Spann Memorial Field and first released on the Atlantic label in 1973. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye.
Fanfare for the Warriors is a 1973 album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago first released on the Atlantic label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye along with AACM leader Muhal Richard Abrams.
Naked is a 1986 album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago released on the Japanese DIW label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye.
Ancient to the Future: Dreaming of the Masters Series Vol. 1 is a 1987 album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago released on the Japanese DIW label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye with Bahnamous Lee Bowie guesting.
Phase One is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in Paris in February 1971 and originally released on the French America label then reissued in the US on Prestige Records the following year. It features Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye performing two side-long pieces dedicated to John Coltrane and Albert Ayler respectively.
Thelonious Sphere Monk: Dreaming of the Masters Series Vol. 2 is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Cecil Taylor released on the Japanese DIW label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye with Cecil Taylor guesting on piano, vocals and percussion.
Fundamental Destiny is a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Don Pullen recorded in June 1991 in Frankfurt, Germany and released in 2007 on the group's AECO label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and Don Moye with Don Pullen joining on piano.
Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City: Live at the Iridium is a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in April, 2004 at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City and released in 2006 on the Pi Recordings label. It features performances by Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye with trumpeter Corey Wilkes and bassist Jaribu Shahid replacing the late Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors Maghostut.
Sirius Calling is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in April, 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin and released in 2004 on the Pi Recordings label. It features performances by Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell and Don Moye with Malachi Favors Maghostut on what would be the final album before his death. It was recorded on April 24–26, 2003 in Madison, WI.
Certain Blacks is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in Paris on February 10, 1970, and released on the America label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, Chicago Beau, Julio Finn and William A. Howell.
Go Home is a 1970 album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in Paris for the French Galloway label - first released in 1973. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell and Malachi Favors Maghostut along with Fontella Bass, Ivan Julien, Bernard Vitet, Ambrose Jackson, Jean Louis Chautemps, Alain Matot, Ventosa, Kenneth Terroade, Raymond Katarzinsky and several unidentified musicians.
Kabalaba is a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974 and released on their AECO label in 1978. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and Don Moye along with Muhal Richard Abrams.
Live in Berlin is a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded in March 1979 and first released on the West Wind label in 1991.
Reunion is a live album recorded at Centro Rai di Produzione Radiofonica in Rome in January 2003 by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and released on the Italian Around Jazz label. It marked the return of Joseph Jarman to the group and features performances by Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye with Baba Sissoko. It is the first live Art Ensemble album to be released following the death of founding member Lester Bowie.
Urban Magic is a live album recorded on 4 June 1997 in Laroche-sur-Yon, France by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and originally released with the March 2003 issue of the Italian magazine Musica Jazz. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye and would be the group's last release featuring Bowie who died in 1999.
