Rolling in Budapest Cultural information in English … Hear everything first hand

Beginning in the mid ’60s, the Afro Avant-garda group layed their seeds as one of the premier free jazz ensembles to emerge from the crucible of Chicago’s improvised music scene. Their fusion of various jazz and pre-jazz traditions – minstrel fare, ragtime, swing – with African and European elements, theater, and far-reaching improvisation changed the landscape of modern music. A true collective, the Art Ensemble gave ample room to the playing and composing abilities of each member while retaining a unique, instantly identifiable sound that heavily influenced what followed in their wake.
The Art Ensemble had its earliest roots in pianist Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band, a (sadly unrecorded) rehearsal group dedicated to exploring the compositional ideas of young Chicago musicians. Three of these intrepid creators, saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman and bassist Malachi Favors, were among the first members of Abrams’ Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) upon its inception in 1965. Favors, the elder statesman of sorts, had already been playing in area jazz ensembles since the mid ’50s Jarman and Mitchell met one another in the music program at Wilson Junior College before each did a stint in the military.

Their  awesome concert  will shortly come at the MOMKult, get your ticket on the spot or online.

Update Aggie Reiter