The Art Ensemble at the height of their powers – really letting loose on the Parisian scene of the late 60s, where they found a great audience for all the new ideas they'd been brewing up back home! The album's definitely one that has the group's unique ethos coming into focus – that sense of spontaneous collective creativity spawned by their AACM contemporaries, but delivered with the special sort of playful energy of the group – as they effortlessly shift instruments, switch modes, and find a way to resonate wonderfully as a group without sacrificing their individual voices! Everyone plays percussion and other instruments – with Joseph Jarman and Roscoe Mitchell on reeds, Lester Bowie on trumpet, and Malachi Favors on bass – on titles that include "Song For Charles", "Ericka", "A Jackson In Your House", and "Get In Line". LP, Vinyl record album

One of our favorite albums of all time – and a legendary testament to the greatness of the Chicago music scene in the late 60s! Melvin Jackson was the bassist in Eddie Harris' very successful group of the time – and his playing on Eddie's trippy and funky records for Atlantic is one of the factors that made them so great. Here, he's working with an acoustic bass, amplified with electronics like a Varitone sax – and this strange-sounding instrument is set up in a hip group that mixes Cadet funky studio players (Phil Upchurch, Morris Jennings, Jody Christian) with some of the brighter young players of the AACM (Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, and Leo Smith.) Jackson's bass is looped through all sorts of crazy effects, and the result is this amazing blend of avant garde playing and groovy rhythms that is beyond compare! The album includes great reworkings of two Eddie Harris funk tracks – "Bold and Black" and "Cold Duck Time" – plus monster originals like "Funky Doo", "Say What", "Dance Of The Dervish", and "Funky Skull (parts 1 & 2)". LP, Vinyl record album

Maybe the most striking set in this ever-shifting series of releases from Matana Roberts – and one that shows his more advanced sonic sensibilities, in a mix of improvised jazz and more compositional settings! There's a vibe here that's almost like the more "serious" work of Roscoe Mitchell – at least in the way that reeds and strings interweave – yet Roberts, as always, brings a deeply personal approach to the music, with lots of shorter songs that weave more soulful elements amidst the avant expressions – which are served up by a lineup that includes Mike Pride on drums, Cory Smythe on piano, Darius Jones on alto, Mazz Swift on violin, and Mat Lavelle on alto clarinet and pocket trumpet. Kyp Malone brings in a bit of electronics, and there are vocalizations at points – on titles that include "A Caged Dance", "No Way Chastened", "Away Is Not An Option", "Shake My Bones", "Enthralled Not By Her Curious Blend", "Different Rings", "Predestined Confessions", and "We Said". LP, Vinyl record album

A record that definitely lives up to the sixth decade legacy noted in the title – as it takes work of the remaining members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and expands it with contributions from a number of musicians – both from Chicago and the global scene as well! The feel here is a mix of some of the larger concepts that Roscoe Mitchell has been working on of late, and some of the more organic expressions that the Art Ensemble helped encourage in the world of jazz – performed by a lineup that has Mitchell on sopranino and alto, and Don Moye on drums and percussion – joined by a huge lineup that includes Junius Paul on bass, Tomeka Reid on cello, Nicole Mitchell on flutes, Hugh Ragin on trumpet, and a larger lineup of basses, piano, and percussion as well. Moor Mother delivers a spoken word passage, and Roco Cordova and Erina Newkirk sing a bit – on titles that include "Kumpa", "Bulawayo", "I Feel Like Dancing", "Jigiba", "Funky AECO", "Improvisation Two", "Ritual Great Black Music", "Cards", and "Leola". LP, Vinyl record album