ECM JACK DEJOHNETTE MADE IN CHICAGO MUHAL RICHARD ABRAMS LARRY GRAY ROSCOE MITCHELL HENRY THREADGILL Live at the Chicago Jazz Festival
Henry Threadgill alto saxophone bass flute MADE IN CHICAGO Roscoe Mitchell sopranino saxophone soprano saxophone alto saxophone baroque flute bass recorder Muhal Richard Abrams piano Larry Gray double bass violoncello Live at the Chicago Jazz Festival Jack DeJohnette drums
Chant 17 : 01 Roscoe Mitchell Jack 5 14 : 53 Muhal Richard Abrams This 12 : 13 Roscoe Mitchell Museum of Time 13 : 37 Jack DeJohnette Leave Don t Go Away 10 : 19 Henry Threadgill Ten Minutes 6 : 06 De Johnette / Threadgill / Abrams / Mitchell / Gray Publishers Roscoe Mitchell: Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Company Muhal Richard Abrams: RIC_PEG Publishing Co. Henry Threadgill: yto Publishing Jack DeJohnette: DeJohnette Music Larry Gray: Graywater Music 2 3
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MADE IN CHICAGO When you play music with people it creates a bond that is never broken. Muhal Richard Abrams This recording from Jack DeJohnette, Muhal Richard Abrams, Larry Gray, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill the Special Legends Edition is their first ever (and we hope there will be more) performance, and it offers a superb realization of what constitutes the Improviser s Art. Here we have five musicians adept at grasping everything, and then using it all, within themselves and together as one. Because they are satisfied with nothing less than everything, they present questions not wholly answered and enigmatic riddles for listeners to ponder. But such are the rich and complex gifts that honor the aesthetic experience and busy traverse between artist and audience. Nothing exists by itself in the Improviser s Art. An intricate network of relationships imbues and informs each moment, whether sensed and understood, or not. People, project; the where and when; purpose, emotion; eagerness, aspiration, soulfulness, gratitude, the weather it adds up in unique creations that are continuously re_shaped and re_imagined, becoming, in time, the shared knowledge and full gloried sustenance that benefits our being beyond words. The expressive, passionate creations experienced in this concert, the whirl and churn, come from an identifiable well of inspiration: a music scene in Chicago growing out of a time in history. For these five thirsty artists, the well has been a consistent mirage before the eyes, many decades long, and the promise of fulfillment remains their purpose and ob session. A timeline to help explain why this group joined together for a concert on August 29, 2013 begins in the previous summer. Jack DeJohnette, just turned seventy and recently named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, received a letter from the producers of the Chicago Jazz Festival stating that they would like to honor him. He was asked to perform at the festival in 2013, free to present any program of music and amalgam of musicians he would like. I saw this as a great opportunity to come home and reunite everyone, said Jack, and the timeline jumps back to 1962, when the drummer was primarily a pianist and studying music at Wilson Junior College (now Kennedy_King College) on Chicago s South Side with classmates Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill. We had one free period each week, and Jack said, Let s have a (jam) session during the free period. It goes all the way back to there, remembered Roscoe. More gatherings took place in each other s homes, if family members and roommates acquiesced, with other friends like Joseph Jarman and Malachi Favors showing up to play as well. When asked to stop, the musicians simply packed up and went looking for the next session. In Chicago, the jam sessions in the clubs were how you earned some credibility around town, said Jack. I was playing piano and sitting_in wherever I could. The musicians worked until two in the morning, but then there were breakfast jams that began at nine a.m. Chicago was great in that 12 13
respect; there were always musicians playing somewhere. At the Wonder Inn, a tavern found at 75 th Street and Cottage Avenue, DeJohnette first heard Sun Ra, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Muhal Richard Abrams, then later he brought one of his first bands, a quintet, into the Archway Lounge near South Park; Muhal was in the house, and took notice. Before long, Jack was invited to be a regular member of Muhal s famed Experimental Band, and his friends Roscoe, Henry, Malachi and Joseph soon followed him. The Monday night workshop rehearsals took place at Lincoln Center on 39 th Street. Later, a space opened up on Oakland Boulevard where the musicians could put on concerts and offer lessons from which the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) was born in May 1965. Jack: Muhal s door was always open. He wanted to explore different ways of composing and improvising, and then demonstrated to me, Roscoe, Joseph and Malachi those different possibilities. It felt natural, and we saw there were other ways to express ourselves through improvisation. Most importantly, we began to recognize something in each other. Muhal: It wasn t a process of encouragement. Everyone came ready to be an individual. That s all it took. And it s quite strong to be amongst people who want to pursue their individualism and accept that realization. Jack: Ornette may have been an influence on all of us; he freed the music and wasn t compartmentalizing it. But Muhal was a Re naissance Man, who taught himself all these things. He was always telling us, Go to the library. Practicing every day wasn t enough; he wanted us to be serious. Go get books you don t need a lot of money, he told us. He d already taught himself orchestration and how to play clarinet; he had studied all t h e piano players. And yet he still has the child_like attitude toward things he was full of wonder. Around the piano, even today, you get the sense that he s still a kid. When there are a lot of strong, creative individuals who want to express themselves, it is necessary to figure out how it can be accomplished in a collective fashion. The solution came to everyone naturally, Muhal said, and added, We were very fortunate to be in that space at that time. Everybody that came into that space drew energy from each other. It felt special and unique because everyone was there for the right reasons, and everyone s efforts seemed synchronized. Henry: We gravitate toward people with a certain kind of voice and vision. I m talking about that moment when we were a lot younger, but we knew that about each other. This person has an individual kind of thing they re trying to do when you re young, you like to look for people who want to try the things you want to try, to find some kind of comradeship. Roscoe extolled the collaboration and community that characterized the Experimental Band and led to the founding of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. All of the people I love and admire in music have that kind of history, he said. If you look at Duke Ellington and the band, their accomplishments grew out of who they were as individuals and collectively as a group. And it is the same with the AACM. Every time I get together with musicians from the AACM it s like we are just picking up 14 15
from wherever we left off. So, to me, it s just a continuation. I think you can achieve great things in music by having these longstanding relationships with people. If you told me back then that this thing never stops, I might not have believed you. But now I see that s really true. Henry: People have to stay engaged in their art form, and I think everyone of us has done so. You also have to keep in touch. It s the basis of friendship. But you have to be completely working at what you do, and that s why Jack was able to pull everyone together. We re doing what we do at a hundred and fifty percent, and stayed in some contact with each other. The nurturing, and sanctuary, as well, provided by the Experimental Band and then AACM made a life_or_death difference to these improvisers during a tumultuous era in Chicago, where racial violence, segregation and crime filled every day with fear and uncertainty. Finding good, steady gigs outside the sanctuary required persistence and imagination; success, even across varying genres, was never enough. The gradual transition to focusing on personal projects heralded a new era in the history of jazz. Muhal: If there was something tired about music, and it dissipated, we would have dissipated. And we didn t dissipate. We deal with what it is. That doesn t mean you aren t aware of your surroundings. We were always aware of our surroundings. But we know this: all kinds of people play music. You know what I mean? All around the world. We travel around the world, see people speaking different languages, and they all play music. What phenomenon is that? Music the human experience in its full glory. Muhal, again: Music seems to thrive on the fact that it infuses everything and everybody. That must be why it speaks to all kinds of individuals in all walks of life. It must be that important. With Muhal s encouragement, Jack, who d made the transition from piano to drums in the year prior, moved to New York City in 1964, coming back for a quick visit as a substitute for Elvin Jones in John Coltrane s band for a gig at the Plugged Nickel. Roscoe recalled that Jack asked Coltrane to let some of his Chicago friends sit in, and it was a glorious evening we were playing together with John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, and Rashied Ali. We got to play, way past club time. Eventually the club s owners threw us out. Roy Haynes came down and played. It s a wonderful memory. Full years and decades ensued for these improvisers, their creative endeavors now legend and history, part of our nation s cultural fabric. Larry Gray, another Chicago native, catches on to AACM in his teens during the early 1970s, rises in renown on his instrument in classical and jazz circles, and eventually plays with Muhal, Roscoe and Jack. (This concert brings Larry and Henry together for the first time.) Larry: I met Jack in 1994, and we worked on a wonderful gig for a week, a quintet, again, with a group of legendary Chicago jazz musicians. Von Freeman, Ira Sullivan and Jodie Christian, so it was a great chance to know him. He has a close connection to his history, and to all different types of music, and a complete understanding of his own voice within that context. Jack had this deep love of all these musicians who came out of Chicago because they were his roots. 16 17
Jack put Special Legends Edition Chicago in motion, made calls. Muhal: It wasn t a surprise to me when he said that he wanted to do this. It was like, well, we finally got something that we can do. Roscoe: I knew it would happen eventually. Henry: I couldn t imagine what was in Jack s mind. I knew that he would have a plan, but I couldn t enter in to that. So I d have to wait and find out what was going to happen. I knew that it was going to be something that would have to work. And there s nothing wrong with that. I m discouraged if it doesn t work. But I have faith in things, that they ll work. Larry: When Jack called I couldn t believe it. He s been a real model for me just his attitude and everything else; that spirituality he communicates. It s like a roundness, a round thing, a vibration that descends upon him. When he solos his eyes are looking up and he s watching something. I m always trying to copy that! Jack: When the opportunity arose, I knew we needed a bassist, and Larry was the first to come to mind. As for the rest of us, our connections stayed strong. We are always in touch, and look to see each other out on tour. But here was an occasion for us to open the festival and go full circle as composers and improvisers. Chicago Legends! It would be historic to have us all together for a special project, but it would also be validation and celebration. We re all seniors now, but still enthusiastic about doing what we can. The music remains our spiritual food. Two days before the concert a day_long rehearsal took place at the Jazz Showcase, Joe Segal s renowned club in the South Loop. Big, oversized photos of jazz greats from the pantheon line the walls of the club. As soon as the drums were set up and instruments unpacked, the musicians went right to work, breaking only for a short lunch. Each of the musicians, excepting Larry, brought a composition in to rehearse. The work was fluid, intense. Jack showed Muhal some chord progressions on the piano for his Museum of Time (titled in homage to visionary author Jane Roberts) Roscoe and Henry worked on the declining voicings that snap to attention in Muhal s Jack 5 Larry working next to the piano, Jack watching, as Muhal lifts Don t Go Away into a swing section. After a short break, Muhal was back on piano, Jack on the brushes, tickling all of the drums. By a hidden signal, they decreased the tempo on Museum of Time, and already the five musicians were back in a groove, empathic and fixed with extra comfort, that time hadn t erased. The next morning, at the venue Constellation on the North Side of Chicago, Muhal played piano for nearly an hour while everyone set up and unpacked classical études, stride, blues. Some visitors, too: Jack s cousins Brenda ( Boo ) and Arthur, music journalist Marc Myers, others. Roscoe assembled a big wooden bass recorder while Henry emitted warm_up honks in another room. Larry took turns tuning his bass and cello. Everyone started looking at the music, knowing there was a tough day ahead and eager to get down to business. They worked on Henry s tune to get the tricky funk syncopations right, and Henry danced around when it finally sounded good. A pairing of Henry on bass flute and Roscoe on soprano sax sounded beautiful. During the lunch break Muhal continued to play piano Rachmaninoff? and then they finished working on Museum of 18 19
Time after lunch. Muhal: That was on it. And then Muhal, again, later, to all: There are no songs! Either you play this or that, then that s art. It s not a song. At nearly 6 p.m., having finished a gorgeous run_through of Roscoe s This, the Edition re_visited Jack 5 and played its hardest, best and most explosive jazz of the day. Over six hours of rehearsal has elapsed, and to put on an exclamation point on the effort, Jack finished the rehearsal with a powerful, trademark drum solo. When he was done, Muhal faced him and said, Thank you, Jack. I m proud of you. You re always looking down the road and forward in terms of music. Special Legends Edition Chicago took the stage of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park on August 29, 2013 just as dusk was beginning to fall and the lights on the nearby skyscrapers turned on. The notorious dragon s breath of the Midwest summer was thankfully absent temps stayed in the 80s and threatened thunderstorms roiled elsewhere. The mayor s office delivered a framed proclamation announcing that it was officially Jack DeJohnette Day in the fair City of Chicago, which flabbergasted one native son and truly impressed the 10,000 others in attendance. Then it was time to play together, finally, after so many years and grasp everything, again, use it all. Thomas Staudter 20 21
Produced by Dave Love and Jack DeJohnette Recording engineer: Martin Walters Assistant engineers: Jeremiah Nave, Daniel Santiago Recorded live August 29, 2013 at the Pritzker Pavilion Millennium Park Chicago at the 35th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival Sponsored by Chicago s Department Of Cultural Affairs & Special Events Programming in part by the Jazz Institute Of Chicago Tour manager: Ken Jablonski Mixed at Avatar Studio, New York by Manfred Eicher, Jack DeJohnette and James A. Farber (engineer) Mastered at MSM Studios, München by Christoph Stickel Photos: Paul Natkin Design: Sascha Kleis Executive producer: Manfred Eicher An ECM Production > < 2015 ECM Records GmbH Postfach 600 331, 81203 München www.ecmrecords.com 22 23
Jack DeJohnette performs exclusively with Sonor Drums, Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth sticks and Korg Keyboards. Henry Threadgill appears courtesy of Pi Records. Transportation provided by Celebration Limousines Hotel Accommodations provided by Hotel Allegro Archivist: Thomas Staudter Management: Montuno Productions America LLC Special recognition to following people for their support of this project: Executive Director Lauren Deutsch and The Jazz Institute Of Chicago. Michelle Boone, Angel Ysaguire, Jennifer Washington and Carlos Tortolero of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events. Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the wonderful Proclamation Of Recognition. Dayna Calderon, Erin Miesner and Joseph Fernicola for your production expertise at Millennium Park. Transportation Specialist and Pianist Greg Temple for getting us where we needed to be. The Jazz Showcase and Constellation for providing the spaces to prepare for our performance. Lydia, Brenda and Arthur for their love and support in Chicago. Manfred, Steve, Guido and Sarah for the opportunity to present our music. Dave and Dani for taking care of business. Especially to the City of Chicago s greatest ambassadors of Jazz, my long_time friends and musical brothers who I am always grateful to collaborate with: Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill and Larry Gray. Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette s Made In Chicago was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and / or endowment gifts from the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust.
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