Bells for the South side

Description

In this exhilarating double album recorded at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Roscoe Mitchell, for the first time, brings together the musicians from his four trios into one ensemble, combining their sounds while playing on the contrasts between their personalities. Both a multi-instrumentalist and composer, Mitchell was invited by the museum to create an original work in the context of the exhibition 'The Freedom Principle', which celebrated the musical and artistic directions implemented by the AACM in the South Side of Chicago. Beginning by exploring the meanders of the piece 'Spatial Aspects of the Sound', leading an ensemble featuring Craig Taborn and Tyshawn Sorey on pianos, Mitchell offers, in a play of colors and textures that is always changing, what appears to be a kind of self-portrait, revisiting the entirety of his history while resolutely projecting into the future. Two pieces - including the one that gives its title to the record - rely on the percussion ensemble of the Art Ensemble of Chicago - an extraordinary maelstrom of gongs, bells, rattles, sirens, hand drums, etc. Throughout, the album features remarkable contributions from each of the group members. Notably, the lyricism of Jaribu Shahid's electric bass on 'EP 7849', Tani Tabbal's solo on 'Cards for Drums', the long intervention of trumpeter Hugh Ragin on 'Bells for the South Side', the evocative electro-atmospheric climates of Craig Taborn and James Fei on 'Red Moon in the Sky', as well as, throughout, the multiple interventions of Mitchell on saxophones, from the piercing sopranino to the powerful bass saxophone. The record concludes with 'Odwalla', a theme composed by Mitchell for the Art Ensemble.