The Art Ensemble of Chicago have always been in it for the long haul. Founded in 1967 as the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, they adopted their current handle 50 years ago this summer, upon relocating temporarily to Paris. They’d already dropped Mitchell’s name to emphasize their evolving collective approach, and they added “of Chicago” after a French promoter billed them that way. At the time their lineup consisted of Mitchell and Joseph Jarman on reeds and other woodwinds, Lester Bowie on trumpet, Malachi Favors Maghostut on bass, and everyone on the handheld percussion they’d dubbed “little instruments”; drummer Famoudou Don Moye, who was already in Paris, became a member of the ensemble there.
Art Ensemble of Chicago 50th anniversary Fri 8/30, 7:45-9 PM, Jay Pritzker Pavilion
- The classic quintet lineup of the Art Ensemble of Chicago performs in Hamburg, Germany, in 1991.
In the years to come, though, diverging priorities slowed the group down, and mortality took a toll. By the early 1980s, the Art Ensemble had scaled back their efforts as each member spent more time making music in other settings. Bowie died in 1999, Favors in 2004. Jarman left the group twice, once in 1993 to devote himself to the study and practice of Zen Buddhism (he returned in 2003) and then again to deal with the illness that ultimately killed him in early 2019. The Art Ensemble performed rarely, and they did not record at all between 2004 and 2018.
