Jazz Articles about Roscoe Mitchell

About Roscoe Mitchell

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed: The Ritual and the Dance

Read "The Ritual and the Dance" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 31, 2021

Seventeen minutes into this thirty-seven minute performance from Roscoe Mitchell and Mike Reed, the saxophonist pauses, removing the soprano from his lips. At that moment, it is clear what an enormous effort the septuagenarian was making. His breath control and lung volume might be matched only by two of his contemporaries, Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann. But then, you might not be surprised by the saxophonist's attack as he has been at this for half a century. This ...

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell / Jerzy Mazzoll / Sławek Janicki / Qba Janicki: Four Sure

Read "Four Sure" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 3, 2021

This quartet of legendary master musician Roscoe Mitchell and three polish players was recorded in Bydgoszcz, a city in northern Poland at the Mózg Festival in 2015. The genesis though can be found back in 1994, when a quintet led by clarinetist Jerzy Mazzoll released Out Out To Lunch (Muzyka Z Mózgu, 1994), their homage to the late Eric Dolphy. The band, which included bassist Sławek Janicki, was exploring the freedom of jazz as their country was completing a transition ...

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell Quartet: Come and See What There Is to See

Read "Come and See What There Is to See" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 14, 2020

In a recent interview, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire related the story of when he first visited a jazz club; as an eighth grader in Oakland, he experienced a performance by The Art Ensemble Of Chicago. What a spectacle it must have been and, of course, he would have witnessed the maestro himself, Roscoe Mitchell. Decades later Akinmusire, some 42 years Mitchell's junior, dedicated a song, “Mr. Roscoe (Consider The Simultaneous)," on his release On The Tender Spot Of Every ...

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell: Splatter

Read "Splatter" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 29, 2020

The special performances of saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell's Conversation Series with orchestra are cause for celebration. The logistics of more than two dozen players is demanding. Add transcriptions for each instrument, rehearsals, grant writing, and securing an appropriate venue. Mitchell has traveled many miles since his debut Sound (Delmark Records, 1966) and his work in the Art Ensemble of Chicago. These days he has the standing to realize his concepts, and our ears are better for it.

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell with Ostravska Banda: Distant Radio Transmission

Read "Distant Radio Transmission" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
June 10, 2020

Sometimes music makes you want to become a better dancer, or maybe even a better lover. With Roscoe Mitchell's music, you can't help but aspire to be a better listener. The co-founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians creates sounds that transcend jazz, new classical, and avant-garde musics. With Distant Radio Transmission he presents music that he previously recorded (solo or in small improvising groups) and reworked for a 33-piece orchestra, ...

Album Review

Roscoe Mitchell with Ostravska Banda: Distant Radio Transmission

Read "Distant Radio Transmission" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
April 15, 2020

Roscoe Mitchell, a co-founder of the AACM and Art Ensemble of Chicago, continues to discover new intersections of jazz, classical and avant-garde music with Distant Radio Transmission. As he approaches eighty years of age Mitchell has waved off time and tradition, reinventing the AEoC brand with the orchestrated--sometimes operatic--We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (Pi Recordings, 2019), a project that bore little resemblance to the group's historical discography. On this album, he draws on past compositions to ...

Radio & Podcasts

Four Masters and More

by Marc Cohn
February 21, 2020

After a segment of 21st century music from Andy Fusco, Matt Criscuolo, Wycliffe Gordon and Fred Hersch, we go into celebration mode--saluting Sonny Rollins (with Max Roach) because he IS Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Dave Brubeck (with some gorgeous Paul Desmond on the rarely played 'Jazz Goes To College) on their centennial, and 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, Roscoe Mitchell! Along the way Dinah Washington, Henry Threadgill and Lester Bowie. Gifts & Messages, coloring both inside ...