muzycy:
Roscoe Mitchell: reeds
Mike Reed: drums, electronics

Editor's info:
Astral Spirits presents The Ritual and the Dance by Roscoe Mitchell & Mike Reed. Recorded by Michael Huon at the Oorstof concert series. Zuiderpershuis, Antwerp, Belgium, October 22, 2015. Live concert produced by Sound in Motion. Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Company, ASCAP. Mastered by Dave Zuchowski. Original album artwork by Roscoe Mitchell entitled Welcome. Photo by Geert Vandepoele. Layout by Nick LaRoche.

freejazzblog.org * * * * 1/2
The legendary reedsman and composer Roscoe Mitchell officially became an octogenarian this past summer and his work continues to grow in scale and scope. His ambition and creativity never waning, Mitchell in a recent interview with SFJAZZ (on the occasion of his induction into the 2020 NEA Jazz Master class) said "...it takes a long time to be what I'm trying to be!" Though the pandemic has certainly slowed things down for the Chicago native (currently living in Wisconsin), it sounds like he's enjoying the additional time afforded by the lockdown to explore new ideas. Fellow AACM member Mike Reed has also been keeping busy, both keeping his venues the Constellation and the Hungry Brain afloat during the intermittent lockdowns as well as providing virtual and live events (when permitted). Their first duo album In Pursuit of Magic was released in 2014, the same year as the Conversations albums that have become so significant to Mitchell's orchestral works. The album is rightly framed in a review on the (Free) Jazz Alchemist as "A meeting of an avant-guard legend and a few decades younger disciple, one of the most active animators of the modern jazz scene in Chicago- ain't that a definitive prove of art's continuity?" It's a fantastic album that showcases the physicality of their approach across a pair of tracks. On the Ritual and the Dance that physicality is redoubled across a single long piece with Mitchell on saxophones and Reed on percussion and electronics.

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