Roscoe Mitchell: Looking Back and Looking Ahead
Roscoe Mitchell has a long and distinguished track record of musical accomplishment, but should come as no surprise that he’s looking up the track at what lies ahead. In this interview with Seth Colter Walls of emusic.com, Mitchell looks back on his work from two decades ago, and talks about how his latest composition emerges from that early work. From another, more amusing perspective, read about what Roscoe Mitchell and Michael Jordan have in common.
-Nick Moy
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Chico Freeman Remembers his Father, Von Freeman
Von Freeman anchored a generation of Chicago musicians on the forefront of a key period, on fertile ground, in the development of American improvisational music. Von Freeman’s bracing sound and singular voice spoke for themselves, but in this profile in JazzTimes, Chico Freeman (pictured above) adds his perspective on his father’s persuasive mentoring of a host of Chicago musicians — including one young musician in particular.
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Read MoreMaking Music with Bunky Green
Bunky Green is a Chicago institution, as both a brilliant creative alto saxophonist and as an influential educator. Green’s recording opportunities have been shamefully small, despite the fact that he almost had a jazz hit with a great arrangement of “On Green Dolphin Street” on his early ’60s Argo album Testifyin’ Time. He made an exceptional 2010 collaborative album with alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, which also features Jason Moran and Jack DeJohnette. This is a six-minute documentary on the making of that album.
-Michael Cuscuna
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View VideoSoul — and jazz— singer Fontella Bass RIP
Most of the world knows Fontella Bass as the soul singer who gave the world (and Chess Records) the million-seller “Rescue Me.” Yet to the jazz world, Fontella Bass, who died on the evening of December 26 at age 72, was more than a one-hit wonder. Spouse of trumpeter Lester Bowie of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Bass sang on two of the Art Ensemble’s records — “Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass” and the soundtrack to the French film “Les Stances A Sophie.” Here, Bass and the Art Ensemble wail behind this clip from that 1970 film.
Nick Moy
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