Roscoe Mitchell interview : by Jason Gross (May 1998)
The more you learn about multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell's work, you just have to be more and more impressed by this icon of avant garde jazz. If his only legacy was as a founding member of the Chicago's legendary Assocation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (the AACM as its known, along with Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton among many others) and later, as an off-shoot of this, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (which began as an extension of one of his own groups), his place in history would be secured and then some. But that's only the beginning of Mitchell's work.
Even the most cursory book about the history of post-war jazz has to deal with Mitchell's work. His enormous catalog of works have included pieces for string ensembles, trios, percussion ensembles, orchestras, a recorder ensemble, toy instruments and his own solo horns. In Robert Jourdain's MUSIC, THE BRAIN, AND ECSTACY, the author describes how humans are able to take different sounds from instruments and configure this information in our brain as 'music.' An important part of Mitchell's work has been to deconfigure and reconfigure these sounds into strange new patterns that aren't bound by conventional melody or rhythm, and thus rethink what we consider to be 'music.' Recent performances of "L-R-G/The Maze/S II Examples" (with Art Ensemble members Malachi Favors and Joseph Jarman among others) were the perfect reminder that Mitchell's work doesn't ignore his past achievements, which today still seem very revolutionary.
Special thanks to Richard Abrams and William G. Sacks for their help with this piece.
The more you learn about multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell's work, you just have to be more and more impressed by this icon of avant garde jazz. If his only legacy was as a founding member of the Chicago's legendary Assocation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (the AACM as its known, along with Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton among many others) and later, as an off-shoot of this, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (which began as an extension of one of his own groups), his place in history would be secured and then some. But that's only the beginning of Mitchell's work.
Even the most cursory book about the history of post-war jazz has to deal with Mitchell's work. His enormous catalog of works have included pieces for string ensembles, trios, percussion ensembles, orchestras, a recorder ensemble, toy instruments and his own solo horns. In Robert Jourdain's MUSIC, THE BRAIN, AND ECSTACY, the author describes how humans are able to take different sounds from instruments and configure this information in our brain as 'music.' An important part of Mitchell's work has been to deconfigure and reconfigure these sounds into strange new patterns that aren't bound by conventional melody or rhythm, and thus rethink what we consider to be 'music.' Recent performances of "L-R-G/The Maze/S II Examples" (with Art Ensemble members Malachi Favors and Joseph Jarman among others) were the perfect reminder that Mitchell's work doesn't ignore his past achievements, which today still seem very revolutionary.
Special thanks to Richard Abrams and William G. Sacks for their help with this piece.
source
experimentaletc
Roscoe Mitchel Sound and Space Ensemble