Art Ensemble of Chicago - Sirius Calling
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Music Reviews of Sirius Calling
Music Review: Farewell Malachi
Rating: 4 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.