But Mitchell and his peers are also capable of great-stamina defying blowing sessions. The Art Ensemble has assayed blues-dipped anthems as well as Asian quietude and free-blowing. And Mitchell, along with the likes of Anthony Braxton and Steve Lacy, was a pioneer of the solo saxophone concert. In his NEC master class, he demonstrated with recordings of his benchmark piece “Nonaah,” which began as a solo saxophone étude, partly written, partly improvised, with rapid, leaping intervals through every register meant to create the illusion of several horns playing at once.
“I heard Albert Ayler when I was in the Army,” Mitchell tells me, “and I didn’t quite understand what he was doing. I heard Ornette Coleman when I was in the Army — I didn’t quite understand what he was doing. We’d run around the barracks: ‘Oh, I’m Ornette!’ I did notice about Albert Ayler, as another saxophonist, the man had an enormous sound on the instrument. So I got out of the Army still in ‘denial.’ But then ’Trane comes up with that Coltrane record with ‘Out of This World’ and all that on it and I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s using a modal concept to create this improvisation! You can really do that?’ And then I thought, okay, I better go back and listen to Ornette and Eric Dolphy and so on. Back then, I’d be playing these sessions and I’d hear something and I wouldn’t play it — ‘Oh no, I can’t play that!’ And when I finally did give in, stuff started pouring out. But it took me a couple of years to make that transition.”
“I’m a product of Chicago in the early ’60s,” he tells the students — a theme he often comes back to in interviews. When he talks about the Chicago music scene, he emphasizes the collective will power. “A lot of musicians, their lives were just thrown to the wind, because they had no control over anything.” The AACM was a chance to assert some control, and so was the Art Ensemble. “When we decided to go to Europe, Lester put an ad in the paper: ‘Musician sells out.’ He’s selling all of his furniture, he’s selling everything to sponsor the Art Ensemble’s trip to Europe. That’s the way we played it. The Art Ensemble could never have stayed together as long as it has without that kind of community.” For several years, Jarman dropped out of the AEC to pursue his interest in Buddhism. Bowie passed away in 1999, Favors in 2004. But Jarman is back in the band, and on the new live double CD Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City (Pi), trumpeter Corey Wilkes and bassist Jaribu Shahid have joined as new permanent members.
On the Thursday that ended his three-day NEC visit, students (with a few faculty ringers) presented the fruits of Mitchell’s labors with them. Most of the eight pieces mixed various elements of written and improvised sections: two pieces for 20-piece orchestra including strings and a conductor, “Slow Tenor and Bass” for two tenors and two basses, three pieces for small ensembles, and one completely improvised piece for eight players, Mitchell as one of two percussionists playing a rack of instruments of his own design. It was a delicate, beautifully shaped piece, reminiscent of Sound, and it was just about impossible to tell how its various sections for full-ensemble improv, solos, duos, and trios were cued. But Mitchell, with his balletic movements, swinging his arms wide with a pair of small mallets, producing light, singing sounds from his bells, cymbals, and skins, was its spiritual core.
