Live in Paris

Recorded in 1969, Live in Paris follows two studio albums that the Art Ensemble cut for BYG/Actuel during the same year -- A Jackson In Your House and Message To Our Folks. What Parisian audiences must have made of the band with its wild makeup and costumes can only be debated, but the music contained on this double-CD reissue of the original double-album (the LP was issued on the Arista Freedom label in the United States in 1974). Each CD features one composition, and is divided into two parts, in keeping with the LP releases. "Oh, Strange," by Joseph Jarman and Lester Bowie, begins with a very short, bluesy, jazz theme that is augmented almost immediately with all manner of percussion instruments which multiply until they literally take over, leaving Jarman and Mitchell to knottily play a folk song variation on the opening theme that is articulated over moans, groans, and droning baritone and tenor saxophones. Dynamics and tension begin to gradually shift as notions of tempo, and even striated harmonics, are laid waste in the din. But this far from un-listenable noise, in fact, perhaps now in the 21st century, more than ever before, the freewheeling improvisation of the Art Ensemble makes a kind of syntagmatic sense. On the other monolithic piece here, "Bon Voyage," written by Bowie, the Art Ensemble is accompanied by the composer's then-wife, singer Fontella Bass, who recorded "Les Stance A Sophie" with them later. Bass uses her rhythm and blues grit and gospel dynamics and control to improvise alongside the band, who have to make plenty of room for her contribution. There is a wondrous tension at play in the oppositional fields of male and female energies here. Bass swoops, glides, hollers, moans, and sings her way into the maelstrom of space. This is the finest live recording by the Art Ensemble, and an indispensable part of any free jazz collection; it's part of Charley's Actuel reissue project.

DISC 2:
1. Bon Voyage - (Part 1)
2. Bon Voyage - (Part 2)