Das Art Ensemble of Chicago in Paris, Sommer 1969
Annäherungen an den Improvisationsstil eines Musikerkollektivs
The recordings of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, made in Paris in the summer of 1969, form a crossing of two stylistic developments in Free Jazz, which aim into different directions: the review on various musical idioms originating in Afro-American tradition, and the developing of a new exercise in group improvisation on the other hand. The essay on hand deals mainly with the second stylistic component of the music produced by the Art Ensemble of Chicago – the free collective improvisations. With these it is essential to test methods for musical analysis, which enable an exact approach to freely improvised and not idiomatically bound music. The outline of biographical backgrounds and musical perspectives of Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favours, Lester Bowie and Joseph Jarman is followed by a description of the various instruments, playing techniques and sounds used by the musicians. These components then allow a specific sound conception of the music presented by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. An examination of the fields of themes within the longer Art Ensemble recordings of the summer 1969 illuminates the improvised handling the musicians are conducting with their thematic material laid down in advance. The main emphasis of the musical analysis actually lies in the portrayal of a few characteristic designing principles of the free collective improvisations. With the aid of progression diagrams and score transcriptions it can be shown that the four Art Ensemble musicians proceed from the assumption of a basic equality of the individual instruments and sounds, which, however, must be worked up quite actively in the progress of playing by each member of the ensemble. Comparably rapid alterations of the instrumental combinations and musical episodes predominate within the single improvised pieces. A great heterogeny and variability of the different sound constellations is aimed at through a closely connected interaction among the musicians. This includes both the possibility of severe fractures and clefts as well as moments of search for direction and of silentness.