I was gratified to see that Roscoe Mitchell was on the cover of the May edition of the fine UK magazine The Wire. The mag was marking the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) with a feature article on Mitchell who spends most of his time outside Chicago now, teaching at Mills College in California. Inside there was a long interview with Mitchell on his current plans and activities.
The AACM is still very much active, both in Chcago and in New York. Info can be found here: http://aacmchicago.org/ and here: http://aacm-newyork.com/.
So why not have some live Roscoe Mitchell from exactly 39 years ago? This was recorded at La Mama in New York, a place given to theatre and music in the late 70s and a spot for off-mainstream jazzers to ply their trade.
This was one of a series of recordings by "orchiddoctor" from the latter part of the 70s, inside and outside NY. I have posted a little bit before, but there will be more AACM-related material in the time to come, drawing on these recordings from the period.
This was upload to the Dime torrent site by "carville", so thanks to both for making it available to members, and we shall do our bit here to keep it available to all interested.
Basic facts:
Roscoe Mithcell Trio
May 23 1976
LaMama NY, NY
total time 54:04
1 31:03
2 2:31
3 20:30
Roscoe Mitchell - reeds
Oliver Lake - reeds
Phillip Wilson - drums
Finally, some keen observations from "orchiddoctor":
What can I say about Roscoe Mitchell? In my opinion, he is the king of them all. Certainly in the late 70s, he was the most sought out musician in the bunch. Besides seeing him with the AEC some 30 times, I saw him at the Wildflowers festival, with Muhal (and Air), in a septet, in a trio with Oliver Lake and Philip Wilson, and solo. All but the Wildflowers (available commercially) is going up on Dime.
I have many memories of Roscoe. Sometimes he would just show up to hear someone else play and then hang out. Often, we would catch a set at the Palace and then walk over to the West Side to catch a set of someone else. I walked with Muhal several times and once with "Scowie. We talked about his disdain for the fact that his music (and others') was drawing a predominately white audience with few blacks in attendance, We agreed that the white audience heard things in a more cerebral manner while black folks heard the ancestral rhythms. At any rate, he was pleased that so many people were opening up their ears, minds and hearts to listen to this music. If you're reading this, you already have. Enjoy!
