We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration

by The Art Ensemble of Chicago

Overview

We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration from Pi Recordings, represents the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago's first studio recording in 15 years and features an expanded cast. It arrives some four months after the passing of founding member Joseph Jarman in January 2019 (he doesn't appear), leaving the band's surviving core membership of Roscoe Mitchell and Famoudou Don Moye. The Art Ensemble of Chicago has, since the very beginning, dedicated itself to African diasporic music; their motto is "Great Black Music-Ancient to the Future." Their long tenure also reflects the individual personas of its creators through jazz, advanced compositional techniques, theatrical performance, poetry, and Pan-African percussion, along with an improvisational flair and an exploratory collective persona. Comprised of two discs, this set includes a meticulous studio session and a rousing live concert captured in Ann Arbor, Michigan at Edgefest 2018. This offering is not a mere retrospective, but even its revisioning of older pieces is a startling new creation that surviving members pull off with a diverse group of 15 highly individual talents who bring their own approaches to the AEC's aesthetic lineage. They include Jaribu Shahid, Nicole Mitchell, Tomeka Reed, Hugh Ragin, Junius Paul, and many more. Together, these virtuoso musicians honor the group's history and help advance the legacy of deceased members Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, and Jarman. Vocalist Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron opens the studio disc with his chamber-style singing of Mitchell's art song "Variations and Sketches from the Bamboo Terrace" and later delivers the two-part "Jamaica Farewell." The band delivers scorching rhythmic interplay on the completely revisioned "Chi Congo 50" (its original dates from 1972). The spoken and sung poetry of Moor Mother (Camae Ayewa) drives Mitchell's insistent title track and Moye's sprawling, trippy, and profound "Mama Koko." The interplay among players is intuitive, economic, and joyous, guided by the inspiration of the AEC's founders; individual traces are all but erased as a striking, spontaneous whole emerges in the studio. Readings of some of the previous and legacy works become different animals altogether live. The album's title track, for example, is not delivered as a celebratory exploration of sound and poetry, but as a long chamber piece with terrain eked out for free improvisation. "Oasis at Dusk" melds African folk rhythms and hard-grooving vanguard soul-jazz with a killer flute solo from Nicole Mitchell. There is also a reading of Favours' "Tutankhamun" that bridges swinging post-bop, funk, and aggressive improvisation, while the live "Mama Koko" unfolds like a folk song before spiraling into the jazz unknown. The live "Saturday Morning" is a percussive study in harmony and dynamics with swirling brass, reed, and woodwind improv adding poignancy to the beat-driven backdrop as urgent, celebratory vocal ululations expressly highlight an otherwise all but hidden melodic statement. The sheer breadth of the ensemble's expression on We Are on the Edge is staggering, a strident declaration that Mitchell and Moye will carry the AEC's powerful, boundary-less creative ethos full force into its sixth decade. ~ Thom Jurek

Product Details

Release Date:	08/23/2019
Label:	Erased Tapes Records
UPC:	4050486115145

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Art Ensemble of Chicago   Primary Artist
Roscoe Mitchell   Sax (Alto),Sax (Soprano),Sax (Sopranino)
Enoch Williamson   Okonkolo,Talking Drum,Tama,Bells,Bongos,Congas,Djembe,Shaker,Chekere,Kenkeni
Titos Sompa   Bells,Cuica,Congas,Shaker,Vocals,Maracas Mbira
Christina Wheeler   Kalimba,Autoharp,Sampling,Omnichord,Electronics,Moog Synthesizer,Voices
Jaribu Shahid   Bass,Singing Bowls
Hugh Ragin   Bells,Trumpet,Flugelhorn
Nicole Mitchell   Flute,Piccolo,Flute (Bass)
Tomeka Reid   Cello,Soloist
Jean Cook   Violin
Famoudou Don Moye   Gong,Bells,Drums,Bendir,Congas,Djembe,Shaker,Dun-dun,Triangle
Junius Paul   Bass
Stephen Rush   Conductor
Silvia Bolognesi   Bass
Yoon Kwon   Viola
Fred Berry   Trumpet,Flugelhorn
Moor Mother   Voices
Dudu Kouate   Tama,Chimes,Djembe,Kanjira,Calabash,Percussion,Talking Drum
Rodolfo Cordova-Lebron   Voices

Technical Credits

Geoff Michael   Engineer
Gregory Howe   Mixing,Editing,Engineer
Titos Sompa   Composer
Barbara Barefield   Photography
Roscoe Mitchell   Composer,Producer
Lester Bowie   Composer
Liberty Ellman   Mixing,Mastering
Robert Kirby   Mixing,Editing,Engineer
Yulun Wang   Executive Producer
Famoudou Don Moye   Composer,Producer,Assistant Engineer
Enoch Williamson   Composer
Sean Westergaard   Assistant Engineer
Seth Rosner   Executive Producer
Brian Woodring   Engineer
Malachi Favors Maghostut   Composer
Jim Gibbons   Producer,Microphone,Live Sound Engineer
Josef Deas   Assistant Engineer
Simon Grendene   Design
Joshua Marshall   Liner Notes
Moor Mother   Poetry
Amerigo Lancini   Engineer
Carlo Braschi   Photography
Dudu Kouate   Assistant Engineer
Eliel Sherman Storey   Audio Engineer
Emmanuel Cremer   Horn Arrangements,String Arrangements
Francesco Invernici   Engineer
Marty Gray   Assistant Engineer
Paola Rolon-Machado   Photography