In his brief liner essay introducing this amazing 21-disc retrospective, ECM founder Manfred Eicher states that he wanted to work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago after hearing late-'60s recordings by its members and witnessing their legendary performances in Paris during the era -- which resulted in 15 recordings for various labels. Eicher didn't get his chance for nearly a decade, but the relationship between label, band, and colleagues continues. The release of this mammoth retrospective finds the label and the musicians celebrating precursors to their respective 50th anniversaries. The AEC, an outgrowth of the South Side's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians have always been great architects of space (check the AEC's own collective debut, People in Sorrow). They took on the intense challenges put forth by Coltrane, Coleman and Taylor and used sound itself as a means to, and process of, investigation. ECM's has also been ready to engage space whenever possible: Their motto is "the Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence."
While the quintet (Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Famoudou Don Moye, and Malachi Favors Maghostut) only recorded four albums for ECM, their circle of influence continues to spiral out. These albums -- Nice Guys, 1979; Full Force, 1980; Urban Bushmen, 1982; and The Third Decade, 1984, represent, by most accounts, their finest, most enduring work. Bowie signed his own contract with ECM during the period and released four solo albums. The first two, The Great Pretender (1981) and the double All the Magic! (1983) juxtaposed high-wire improvised music with the trumpeter's deep love for pop and R&B. The second pair showcased his ten-piece Brass Fantasy group that included Craig Harris, Steve Turre, and Bob Stewart. The box also contains a fifth AEC disc, the tender, beautiful, and warm Tribute to Lester, issued in 2003, four years after Bowie's death, and played by a trio -- Jarman was studying to become a Buddhist priest and ultimately retired
So what of the rest? Eicher and his assistants have assembled the AEC's extended reach through three albums by Jack DeJohnette's New Directions (that featured Bowie in the lineup) and Leo Smith's classic Divine Love. An associate of the AACM, he featured the tune "Tastalun" dedicated to Bowie with him playing alongside Kenny Wheeler. The drummer's 2015 acclaimed live date Made in Chicago with Mitchell and other AACM luminaries is also included. Finally, three acclaimed Mitchell projects--Nine to Get Ready, Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3, and 2017's brilliant Bells for the South Side -- are included. The inclusion of Boustrophedon by Evan Parker and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble is here, for which he combined his own Electro-Acoustic Ensemble with Mitchell's quartet. The 200-page book is astonishing, and includes essays by Craig Taborn, George Lewis, and Vijay Iyer, with a lengthy historical appreciation by author Steve Lake. There are dozens of pulled quotes, complete album art, and photographs inside to boot. Sure, this is for AEC completists, but it is also a peerless, necessary addition to paired legacies of the band and label that it will resonate with virtually compelled, collectively created, aesthetically advanced improvised music. Essential!