Solo[3]

Roscoe Mitchell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 22, 2004)
• Original Release Date: February 22, 2004
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Mutable Music
• ASIN: B0001NJ4XK
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #502,232 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Sudden music! All alone, unprotected, Roscoe Mitchell confronts Silence: the void, the vast unknown. One and a half of the 38 pieces in this collection are composed. Two more are improvisations that begin with at least some conditions. The other 34 and a half pieces are completely improvised–Mitchell simply picks up a horn or mallets and begins playing. He’s armed only with his wide-ranging imagination, his instruments, his virtuosity, and his experience–for what more does he need? Proof of his self-sufficiency is that each improvisation is a distinctive, flowing work that has its own meaning, its own unique story to tell. "I started working on one CD," he says, "but I started getting more and more material, and I thought that at this point in my career, one solo CD is not enough. I’d better put out three CDs, because time is going on by."

Mitchell has been creating a cappella solos for around four decades now. He’s one of the Chicagoans who virtually invented the unaccompanied horn solo in free jazz: "You have to be responsible for all the music–I thought it was part of what I had to learn. To be a good improviser you have to improvise by yourself and also with an ensemble. It’s a good way to get where you’re not following people – inexperienced improvisers will definitely start following the first strong idea that comes along." After a few pioneers such as Eric Dolphy and Jimmy Giuffre, Mitchell and some of his AACM colleagues (saxophonists Joseph Jarman, Anthony Braxton, violinist Leroy Jenkins, trumpeters Lester Bowie, Wadada Leo Smith, how many others?) went on to make a formidable medium of unaccompanied soloing. Along with the aesthetic rewards, there was another reason for this new medium’s growth, in America and around the world, during the 1970s economic recession: Concert presenters who couldn’t afford to hire a group could sometimes afford to hire a single artist.

It’s not like the bygone times when artists spent their lives playing, say, Dixieland or bebop. Today’s artists have to continually reinvent themselves. Through all of Mitchell’s musical changes, he has remained fiercely, insistently original. The early years of his Art Ensemble and (from 1969) the Art Ensemble of Chicago were a time of discovery. As his scope steadily expanded–improviser, composer, with many kinds of large and small ensembles, as well as Art Ensemble member and lonesome soloist–he not only made more discoveries, he made remarkable developments of his rediscoveries. As he did with "Little Big Horn 2," he may very well go on to develop delightful new works from some of the wonderfully rewarding improvisations of Solo 3.

(From John Litweiler’s liner notes)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roscoe Mitchell and the severity of his muse., July 18, 2004

By 

greg taylor (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Solo[3] (Audio CD)

I wanted to add some remarks and context to the info provided above from John Litweiler's liner notes. There are three CDs in this set.
CD1 is entitled Tech Ritter and the Megabytes and features Mitchell on various saxophones or flutes and the percussion cage. Many of the pieces are overdubbed. Even the ones that are not overdubbed may seem like they are for Mitchell, like Evan Parker or Braxton, is capable of circular breathing while playing so fast and distinctly that it sounds like at least two saxs are being played. Mitchell is also capable of playing with great serenity as he does on 1999/2000. And remember this is the man who with his very first recordings brought into the free jazz aesthetic an attention to space and layers in music. Before his CD, Sound, there was much skronking in free jazz. Still is. But after that CD, there were other possibilities as well.
CD2 is called Solar Flares (for Alto Sax) and consists of ten alto soli. About these I will only say that they are lyrical, harsh, and very impressive to me. I have listened to solo sax players for over thirty-five years now and there are very few who are Mitchell's peers. I suggest some time that you put on CD2 and do nothing but listen to these improvs. They are worth the focus.
CD3 has surprised me by how much I enjoy it. This is called The Percussion Cage And Music On The Go. This consists of 17 pieces for the cage and flutes and four shorter soprano sax soli. The percussion cage is a just that- a four sided structure on which hang the hundreds of "little instruments" that Mitchell has collected since his early days in Chicago and the AACM. Some are instruments, some are things that he has collected that have a nice ring to them. Mitchell does not use them as percussion instrements but as a means to carry a melodic line, indeed, a complete musical structure. These are surprisingly lovely and approachable pieces.
Roscoe Mitchell is one of those individuals who seems to be constantly striving for a music that is just out of his reach. His is a demanding aesthetic that will not let him settle for the mundane. To a remarkable degree over the years his CDs have lived up to that standard. This set is a wide-ranging document of his current work that will satisfy those of us who have followed his work from his early recordings as well as those who are just now coming to it. Keep your ears open, people, and hang on. We got some expanding to do.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music of the Stars and Planets, August 16, 2007

By 

R. McCoy "R. McCoy" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Solo[3] (Audio CD)

Lester Bowie said that Music is the "Master of the Universe," and indeed it is. After listening to this music, you will know what it is like to travel into the worlds beyond via the sound current. I have travelled into the worlds beyond (earth) many times only using the mantra of "HU." I do this by closing my eyes and singing HU which sounds like the proper name "Hugh." Nothing compares with this experience, but If a novice should ask me what is it like to travel into the other worlds, I might suggest that he or she acquire Roscoe Mitchell's "Star Music," for that's what I call it, and listen!

I do expect this music to be the vanguard of music that will change the world. I know this may sound like hyperbole, but music has changed the world in the past, get ready for it to happen again.

Spread the word about this music, be a part of a revolution.