The Sixth Decade: From Paris to Paris was recorded at the Sons d'hiver Festival in February 2020 to celebrate the anniversary of
Art Ensemble of Chicago's arrival in Paris in 1968. It changed their lives, and ultimately jazz history.
AEC has dedicated itself to African diasporic music. Their long tenure also reflects an exploratory collective persona and the rich variety of its individual members across jazz, advanced composition, performance, poetry, humor, and Pan-African musical traditions.
Famoudou Don Moye and
Roscoe Mitchell are the only remaining members of the original quintet: trumpeter
Lester Bowie died in 1999, bassist
Malachi Favors in 2014, and reed and wind master
Joseph Jarman in 2019.
Moye and
Mitchell have continued the
AEC tradition by expanding the lineup (this version includes 21 musicians from several generations) and reshaping their sound. Half of the musicians, including cellist
Tomeka Reid, flutist
Nicole Mitchell, trumpeter
Hugh Ragin, bassist
Jaribu Shahid, violinist
Jean Cook, and percussionists
Enoch Williamson and
Kouate have worked with
AEC before. The remainder include spoken word queen
Moor Mother, singers
Erina Newkirk and
Roco Cordova, bassist
Junius Paul, pianist
Brett Carson, violist
Eddie Kwon, and a small army of percussionists.
This is a two-hour-plus example of
AECs 21st century aesthetic with African-American musical forms -- jazz, blues, R&B, gospel -- that coexist alongside art song, chorales, and chamber music. Opener "Leola" offers trilling strings, droning brass, and shimmering gongs before
Ragin's horn and
Carson's piano introduce
Moor Mother, appended by
Newkirk's soprano and
Cordova's bass singing. While "Introduction to Cards" and "Cards" are both wonderfully abstract improvisations offering striated harmony, adventurous tonalities, and interactive dissonance, they are also seamless, warm, and inviting. They're followed by two more group improvisations before the medley of the West African-inspired "Kumpa" (complete with a bass melody evoking a guimbri) and "Stormy Weather," with poignant and at times transcendent poetry by
Moor Mother, with double basses, bells, drums, and strings weaving a tapestry behind her. Both "New Coming" and "Jigba"/"Feel Like Dancing" are celebratory, driven by roiling layers of Afro-Latin percussion.
"We Are on the Edge" co-exists at the edge of art song, Cuban son, Latin funk, and spiritual soul-jazz behind
Moor Mother's strident lyric. "I Welcome You with Open Arms" is classic
AEC. It begins as a spoken word and percussion exercise as
Moor Mother and
Moye lead the other percussionists in a circular musical chant.
Mitchell's saxophones slowly introduce the band, who engage in driving West African-inspired chants and modal Afro-funk, punctuated by
Nicole Mitchell's transcendent flute. It's followed by the wonderful "Funky AECO," featuring several bassists in a kind of go-go-cum-hip-hop encounter with the percussion section.
Carson's two-handed vamps and
Simon Sieger's grooving tuba support
Moor Mother, who in turn, beckons the full ensemble to join in. "Odwalla," the official closer, is a ten-minute groover. An intricate vocal chorale eventually shapeshifts and transforms into swinging, stomping, group interplay. In sum,
The Sixth Decade is wondrous. It's chock-full of
AEC's trademark musicality, variety, stewardship, and indomitable creative spirit. ~ Thom Jurek
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