condition (records/cover): NM / NM

Gatefold sleeve.

Paris, 1969, from the miraculous BYG Actuel run: Art Ensemble of Chicago at their most panoramic, moving from mock-sermon theatre through a roaring "A Brain for the Seine" to the gutbucket groove of "Rock Out" - Great Black Music, ancient to the future, demonstrated rather than argued. Few records make the Ensemble's central claim as vividly: that the entire history of the music, from the church to the street corner to the conservatory to the riot, is one continuous instrument waiting to be played. Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman and Malachi Favors treat that inheritance with equal parts reverence and mischief, and the joy is audible in every switchback.

The BYG originals climbed out of reach long ago; this Get Back edition puts the music back on honest vinyl for working turntables, which is exactly where it belongs. One of the essential Paris statements, from the season that produced a library of them.