Word: instrumentalists
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Probably the most immediately striking element of the Art Ensemble's music is their use of multi-instrumentalist. It is not unusual to see a jazz saxophonist double on flute or clarinet, but Joseph Jarman works beside a rack of no fewer than eleven woodwind instruments, ranging from a wooden flute and tiny sopranino saxophone to a bass clarinet. One hallmark of AACM artists is a fascination with interesting and unusual juxtapositions of instruments, and in the AEC this interest is taken to an extreme. What is even more striking than the sheer multiplicity of instruments is the sensitivity...
...Cooder: Jazz (Warner Bros.). Old jazz refurbished by a great instrumentalist...
...contain 17 songs, with an overflow 7-in. disc holding four more. As usual, Stevie operates as a virtual one-man music company. Throughout the album, he acts as composer, singer, instrumentalist and producer. Despite his multiple involvement, Songs has all the spontaneity and relaxation of a jumping jamboree. Indeed, there has not been a pop album this good or this diversified since Wonder's Fulfillingness's First Finale in 1974. Stevie growls at times like an old delta blues shouter, but for the most part he sings in his distinctive black/white style, which occasionally echoes Paul McCartney...
Black's "Owl and Flower" also sets an instrumentalist on stage. The guitarist Keeset-tanamock strums for roughly the middle third of the piece. Huddled down, Black and John Hofstetter prance in circles, teasing one another. Black cuts unexpectedly to the outside of the circle, Hofstetter surprises herwith a flip over his shoulder. Black uses the same loose athletic style Gray called on in sections of "Passing Through" and Soll in bits of "Lunch Break...
...MOST difficult tests of a good orchestra and its conductor is the accompaniment of a virtuoso soloist in a concerto. The weaknesses of the group are too often highlighted by playing with an outstanding musician, and its sloppy playing can detract from the best solo instrumentalist's performance...