Art Ensemble Of Chicago: Les Stances A Sophie

The location is significant because Les Stances A Sophie—a soundtrack for a 1971 New Wave film of the same title, though the fact that the album pre-dates the film accounts for its stand-alone strength—is a record they would surely never have made had they stayed home. That's true in the most literal sense, because it was in France that they befriended the film's director, Moshe Mizrahi. But it's also true in broader artistic terms, the European location shining through most explicitly in the two tracks inspired by Italian Baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi, "Variations Sur Un Theme De Monteverdi i" and "ii."

Yet Western classical music formed only a relatively small part of the AEOC's outlandish vision, self-defined simply as Great Black Music: Ancient To Future. More important was indigenous African music (every member plays percussion as well as their main instrument, and some are pictured on the front cover in trademark tribal facepaint) and jazz. "Theme Libre" and "Theme De Celine" both contain the sort of free jazz freak-outs for which the Ensemble are probably best known; elsewhere the influence of blues and older jazz Forms can be felt, as well as the more obviously cinematic, low-key atmospherics of "Theme Amour Universal" and "Proverbes i."

Easily the most immediate track, however, is opener "Theme De Yoyo," where the band is joined by vocalist (and wife of trumpeter Lester Bowie) Fontella Bass, she of soul classic "Rescue Me." As the only tune previously easily available, some fans will already know it as a minor cult classic—but surely no amount of familiarity can dull the potency of these nine minutes of rapturous soul jazz.