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Art Ensemble of Chicago

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the founding members. The Art Ensemble is notable for its integration of musical styles spanning jazz's entire history and for their multi-instrumentalism, especially the use of what they termed "little instruments" in addition to the traditional jazz lineup; "little instruments" can include bicycle horns, bells, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and a vast array of percussion instruments (including found objects). 

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the founding members. The Art Ensemble is notable for its integration of musical styles spanning jazz's entire history and for their multi-instrumentalism, especially the use of what they termed "little instruments" in addition to the traditional jazz lineup; "little instruments" can include bicycle horns, bells, birthday party noisemakers, wind chimes, and a vast array of percussion instruments (including found objects). 

Nice Guys
*2024 stock. Deluxe packaging* Nice Guys is an album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, recorded in May 1978 and released on ECM the following year—their debut for the label. The quintet features trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophinists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and rhythm section Malachi Favors Maghostut and Famoudou Don Moye.
Urban Bushmen
*2024 stock* Urban Bushmen is a live double album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded at the Amerika Haus in Munich over two days in May 1980 and released on ECM in March 1982. The quintet comprises trumpeter Lester Bowie, saxophonists Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell and rhythm section Malachi Favors Maghostut and Don Moye.
A Jackson in Your House
Tip! *2023 repress* 'A Jackson in Your House' is the first of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s renowned trio of albums for BYG's Actuel series. This album is The Art Ensemble’s most celebrated release and finds the American avant-garde jazz collective at their most sensational, mocking and startling original best in a session from June 1969, at Studio Saravah. Recorded in Paris during the aftermath of widespread anti-government protests and student riots, it demonstrates what can happen when four h…
Full Force
The previous Art Ensemble of Chicago ECM album Nice Guys vaulted them to the top of improvised music groups in the U.S. and worldwide, paving the way for similar bands to be more accepted into the mainstream of modern music. Where "Full Force" generally lives up to the title, there's also a palpable diverse approach, producing more than enough potent music brimming from the sinews of these brilliant musicians to uphold their burgeoning cache. The crown jewel of this effort is "Charlie M," a blue…
Beautiful Young Generation
* Limited Edition 180-Gram white vinyl. Comes in a deluxe matte laminate gatefold sleeve * Newly mastered from original BYG tapes. BYG were a pioneering independant record compagny, one of the  first labels to actively promote diversity and support black African-American musicians and multi-cultural artists worldwide during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Launched in the late ’60s in Paris, a city then in the throes of great social upheaval, BYG became the home of music that was uncompromisingly new. The…
Fundamental Destiny
Katalyst presents Fundamental Destiny by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Live at the Frankfurt, Germany Jazz Festival with Don Pullen. Now, the production team at AECO has once more gone through the archives and come up with another gem, culminating in the recent release of Fundamental Destiny, a record of a live 1991 Art Ensemble concert given in early June of that year at the Frankfurt, Germany Jazz Festival. All the members of the ensemble are present: Lester Bowie on trumpet, Joseph Jarman on w…
Kabalaba
Katalyst Entertainment presents Kabalaba, a live album by the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974 and originally released on their AECO label in 1978. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors Maghostut, and Don Moye along with Muhal Richard Abrams.
Early Combinations
**2020 stock** As the title implies, this is the Art Ensemble in a formative stage. Three parts Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble and three parts Joseph Jarman quartet. A To Ericka was recorded for submission to a Jazz Festival in Poland and was not successful in landing them a ticket to Europe. Quintet was a dress rehearsal for a concert that was cancelled on the day of this recording. Luckily both performances survived on tape to reach a much larger audience than the concerts could have provided. B…
Born Free
Outstanding!!! A huge document of this incredible year in jazz in Germany – a time when free styles were breaking out all over, alongside some of the groovier styles of the MPS scene as well! This beautiful box documents the 12th German Jazz Festival in three different concerts – amazing music that really shows the transformation that was taking place at the time – and which is still revolutionary all these many years later – making for a listening experience that makes us feel like we're hearin…
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