I was very fortunate in being able to buy the massive box set, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles, released by ECM Records in 2018 and containing 21 discs from the group and side projects involving various members. The set was missing the box and the first CD, comprising Nice Guys, the first ECM album by the group and released in 1979, but the cost was only $50 plus tax and I soon after bought a used copy of Nice Guys for $5, so this was a spectacular deal.
The music is pretty amazing, including some excellent AEC studio work, such as Full Force, the first album of theirs that I heard thirty years ago, live albums, and the wide-ranging "associated" material, including solo albums by members of the ensemble and recordings by others, like Jack DeJohnette, which featured AEC personnel. As great as the studio albums were, the live recordings are remarkable, including 1982's double-disc Urban Bushmen. It features all the hallmarks of the Ensemble, including dense percussion, atmospheric soundscapes, blistering horn playing, and one of the best rhythm teams around with chaos, joy, tradition, innovation, power, beauty and many other adjectives all fitting the bill at various times.
As Joseph Jarman's notes about the group preparing for this performance at the Amerikahaus in Munich, Germany on 6-7 May 1980: "They arrive, without name nor form but as the personators of GREAT BLACK MUSIC—ANCIENT TO THE FUTURE; as it flows from the then to now, the beginningless beginning to the endless end, from the center of the center to the unlimited bounds of the universe." Listening to this phenomenal album, it really does feel that way and it is, ultimately, uplifting music, especially in the strange year of 2020.
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