Art Ensemble of Chicago

Marion Brown
In Europe 1968 & 1972
NoBusiness NBCD 187

American Jazz musicians have an extended but imperfect history with France. Usually celebrated as the new thing when first in Europe they become too familiar if they stay too long and settle there. Still the renumeration and support does give them some respite before they sometimes resume their careers stateside. These 1960s-1970s discs chronicle that situation. One of the avatars of The New Thing alto saxophonist Marion Brown (1931-2010), who was part of John Coltrane’s seminal Ascension session, cemented connects with similarly minded European players. Most notable was his collaboration with German vibraphonist Gunter Hampel (1937-2026). This quartet disc featuring the vibist also highlights a shift in Brown’s playing style during the four years between the two sessions.

Arguably one reason for this pivot from all out Energy Music to a more restrained sound was the introduction of pointillist coloration using multiple unique and unexpected idiophones and horns by AACM members that was introduced to Europe at that time. The then quartet that was the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC) set up shop in France for almost two years in the late 1960s and People in Sorrow was one result.

Returning to In Europe. Backed by two expatriate Americas, bassist Barre Phillips (1924-2024) and drummer Steve McCall (1933-1989), the Brown disc’s first three tracks express Free Jazz in its most fully formed and ferocious. As the bassist’s unsegmented thumps and the drummer’s rugged rumbles evolve, Brown prods the jaunty narratives with biting split tones, squeaking flutters and staccato squalls, while Hampel snakes around him with a patina of ringing metal bar pops and resonator reflections. Although some nods to tradition exist in brief quotes of other tunes and a recap of the head of “Current Events”,  turns towards moderation are matched and superseded by pinched reed squeaks and terse doits, pressurized cymbal and drum smack and intense triple-stopping arco and thickened strums from the bassist.

This meld between temperance and transference reaches its zenith on “61 to Erie Basin”. The exposition slithers between spiccato strings pressure, drum patterning, vibraphone slides and reed expansions that take in multiple tone squeezes, t tongue stops and sliding glissandi. The climax is call-and-response first between two registers of Brown’s alto saxophone and then with intervening double bass stops and drum shufflers.

Only Brown and McCall play on the two final tracks, with the drummer’s pulses augmented by textures from bell pealing, struck xylophone or balafon mallet timbres and gong reverberations, played by both himself and Brown. At the same time the altoist’s tone aims towards feather lightness with what sounds like wooden recorder puffs on “Afternoon of a Georgia Faun” which intersect with music-box-like tinkles which are transformed into a combination of propelled and pointillist timbres. Aggressive drum rolls signal the end.

More focus is on the over 22-minute “Djinji’s” which like the other track advances at a more languid pace than any of the 1968 sequences. As the piece evolves wood and metal pulses become more numerous as the saxophone part is measured and almost dissected. A stop-time centre with an unexpected reed octave leap adumbrates drum kit clash and clatter until log drum, belafon and other idiophone reverberations combine before a final sharp reed squawk.

A similar dividing of percussion roles occurs on People in Sorrow, with each AEC member taking that part at times. Nearly arrived from the windy city, bassist Malachi Favors (1927-2004); trumpeter Lester Bowie (1941-1999) and flute and woodwind players Joseph Jarman (1937-2019) and Roscoe Mitchell (b. 1940) wouldn’t add a drummer until next year. If he had been available it could have been Steve McCall. Like the others he was an AACM members, later on he recoded separately with each of the AEC horn players and Mitchell titled his 1992 disc, This Dance Is for Steve McCall.

More hushed and assembled with note additions, stippled tones and tonal ambiguity that often ascends to a steady bass pulse, the two parts of People in Sorrow were as revolutionary as they were evolutionary at the time. Before the horns even enter with whines and moans, the exposition has been defined with a collection of idiophone pulses that suggest metal and wood projection from balafon, maracas, xylophone, bells, chimes and squeezed plastic toys. With Favors’ tough throbs maintaining horizontal advancement, interruptions like a police whistle and murmured voices are heard along with near formal flute trills and muted trumpet portamento.

Cleverly harmonizing idiophones, strings, reeds and brass at the top of “People In Sorrow (Part 2)”, nasal reed flutters and heraldic trumpet sighs ascend and descend from harsh brass bites and oboe sneers to altissimo reed split tones and kazoo-like brass honks as idiophone shakes give way to hard drum ruffs and cymbal crashes. These layered multiphonics exist alongside the anchoring double bass stops however. By the finale, as half-valve trumpet drones intersect with equivalent reed timbres the resulting well paced and speedier exposition is still guided by an overriding bass pulse with a single metal bar stroke coda.

Reissue of a well-regarded creative music session and the discovery of more chapters in a trailblazing sound explorer’s musical history, both these discs are welcome additions to the Jazz and improvised music story.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Europe: 1. Current Events  2. Epiphanie 3. 61 to Erie Basin 4. Djinji’s 5. Afternoon of a Georgia Faun

Personnel: Europe: Marion Brown (alto saxophone); Gunter Hampel (vibraphone); Barre Phillips (bass) and Steve McCall (drums)

Track Listing: People: 1. People In Sorrow (Part 1) 2. People In Sorrow (Part 2)

Personnel: People: Lester Bowie (trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion); Joseph Jarman (alto saxophone, bassoon, oboe, flute, percussion); Roscoe Mitchell (soprano, alto and bass saxophones, clarinet, flute, percussion); Malachi Favors (bass, zither, percussion)