Farewell Malachi
Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 09/29/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Acknowledged as THE preeminent avant garde jazz unit, The Art Ensemble of Chicago has soldiered on for almost four decades. Formed in 1966, the group has recently undergone some dramatic and tragic personnel changes, yet still, continue to record and tour. "Sirius Calling" is their final studio recording with their original bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut who died unexpectedly soon after this session was completed.
Although most jazz artists tend to age fairly gracefully, it is the edgier artists on the outskirts of tradition that end up faring worse off than their more mainstream peers. Starting out ones creative career at full tilt leaves such an artist nowhere to go but down, and so the critics lie in wait. What was once unbridled fury and acerbic sonic mayhem occasionally reverts to more "mature" playing, and so later recordings often times end up seeming less essential than their seminal ones. Not so the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Amazingly, these musicians continue to push the conceptual envelope despite a virtual four decades on the scene.
Saxophonist Joseph Jarman left the quintet in 1993, leaving the four to continue on, which they did, until 1999, when trumpeter Lester Bowie succumbed to cancer. Reduced to a trio, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, bassist Malachi Favors and percussionist Don Moye, they remained undaunted and released one of their finest albums: 2003's "Tribute To Lester." Later that same year Jarman returned to the fold and the group began recording and touring again. Their debut album for Pi Recordings, "The Meeting," followed promptly and found the group exploring their usual territory of quiet pointillistic free improvisation peppered with some lyrical swinging pieces and a few rapturous free-bop tunes. "Sirius Calling" is sonically similar yet still a slightly different affair.
The variety is still there, but the sequencing is quite different. The longer tracks have been replaced with 14 short numbers, most in the 3 to 4 minute range. This time the group splits its efforts into duos, trios and the full quartet. Typically, there are a number of quiet free chamber-esque improvisations like the longest track, the 9 minute "Taiko." Sprightly swinging tunes like "Till Autumn" and "Slow Tenor and Bass" share equal time with blisteringly intense free pieces like "There's A Message For You," "Cruising With JJ" and the title track.
Art Ensemble fans will no doubt consider this essential, as it is Malachi's final recording with the band. But newbies will find this a more accessible release as the shorter pieces may not be as daunting to those unaccustomed to the Art Ensemble's usual epic length compositions. The relative brevity of the majority of these tracks only makes the albums pertinence all the more profound. It seems as though the group kept to shorter pieces, subconsciously aware of Malachi's condition, sadly making this affair all the more pointed. A remarkable elegy and a fitting introduction to the bands' aesthetic, "Sirius Calling" is also a fine tribute to an even finer musician. Malachi, you will be sorely missed."
MALACHI FAVORS MAGHOSTUT -- gone to Sirius
R. Hutchinson | a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds | 06/27/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Roscoe Mitchell explains that Malachi Favors titled the album before his death on January 31, 2004:
"In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, is the place where the soul goes after leaving the body. Ancient Egyptians believed Sirius's first ascent brought forth the annual flooding of the Nile, which marked the start of the growing season and so was also thought to symbolize renewal and reincarnation. SIRIUS CALLING is dedicated to brother Malachi, whose spirit lives on in our music."
The intrepid bassist, who played with the Art Ensemble from the very beginning, held strong Pan-African beliefs. In the AEC's ritual presentation, drummer Don Moye, reedman Joseph Jarman and Favors donned African face paint and garb, while Lester Bowie wore the white labcoat of the scientist, and Roscoe Mitchell wore workingman's clothes. I'm not sure what the entire esoteric meaning of this was, but I am quite sure that it related to the Pan-Africanism that led the band to coin the term "Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future" to replace "jazz," which of course began with pejorative connotations. And it certainly made great theatre!
The music of SIRIUS CALLING was created right on the heels of the sessions that resulted in THE MEETING, the first recording with Joseph Jarman in many years. These recordings are shorter, more concentrated, and generally better than the earlier ones, which were often diffuse and percussion-heavy. There are two Mitchell compositions, two Moye/Jarman compositions, one Favors/Mitchell composition, and eight group improvisations, in various combinations, not always the entire quartet. While not among the very best of the Art Ensemble, and not as powerful as TRIBUTE TO LESTER (finally released in 2003 by ECM -- see my review) it is a fine record, one that captures many moods and styles, including Joseph Jarman's Buddhism, though most are on the quieter side. Of course Mitchell and Jarman play a vast array of instruments -- not including percussion, they are: piccolo, flute, bass flute, C flute, E-flat flute, wooden flutes, bass & great bass recorders, E-flat sopranino clarinet, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor & bass saxophones.
Pi Recordings, a superb label which has specialized in presenting the music of the Black and especially Chicago AACM-related avant-garde (Art Ensemble, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, Revolutionary Ensemble), deserves recognition for producing another stunning disc, with impeccable sound production by Buzz Kemper and Steve Gotcher and some of the best cover art I've seen, by Figureground.
I recommend FANFARE FOR THE WARRIORS (1974 -- see my review) as the best AEC studio album, and URBAN BUSHMEN (1982) as the best AEC live album. For more AEC recordings and reviews, see my AACM -- THE CHICAGO AVANT-GARDE list.
I wish Roscoe, Joseph and Don many more years of music-making, and I look forward to hearing more of their profound creativity as we continue the journey -- as Alfred North Whitehead (the process philosopher) said, THE UNIVERSE IS A CREATIVE ADVANCE INTO NOVELTY."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1