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SIRIUS CALLING
(Pi)
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This is perhaps the most sublime of the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s three albums since their troubled regrouping a couple of years ago. Trumpet visionary Lester Bowie died in 1999 and reedman Joseph Jarman returned to the band after a lengthy absence. Then, following the recording of Sirius Calling, bassist Malachi Favors died this past January at age 76. Sirius Calling lives up to the band’s motto, "Great Black Music Ancient to the Future," while dropping their weakest suits, the occasional forays into pop funk and reggae. Instead, this mix of free bop, serial-style kabuki collective improvs, chamber jazz, and African percussion workouts is definitive of the band at their best. They also avoid the stamina- and form-defying lengthy jams of past recordings, keeping things succinct: seven of the 14 tracks come in under four minutes, and none breaks 10. That opening annunciatory series of wide, half-sour soprano-sax intervals over declamatory free bass and full-throttle drum pulse on the title track puts one back in the heart of the AEC’s greatness. There’s a nice mid-tempo bop tune with walking bass (Roscoe Mitchell’s "Til Autumn"), a trio for reeds and bowed bass ("Come On Y’All"), a percussion/bass passage that quotes "A Love Supreme," and a spacious, orchestral deployment of bells and other percussion that conjures West Africa or Bali depending on your point of view. Sirius Calling demonstrates just how deliberate and poised so-called "free" jazz can be.
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