Art Ensemble of Chicago
Grande Musica Nera

The publishing house Quodlibet released in 2018 the Italian translation of John Steinbeck’s biography of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago, one of the most enduring and significant groups in the historical panorama of music. Great Black Music is the category in which the Art Ensemble themselves have philosophically and explicitly inserted their work. Indeed, we cannot simply confine their history within the boundaries of jazz, even when understood in the broadest and most varied sense of the genre. Steinbeck retraces their personal and group journeys, their artistic trajectory that spanned about 40 years, starting from their individual biographies and within the framework of the socio-musical initiative of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) in Chicago. From there unfolds a narrative that details both extremely technical musical data (the album A Jackson In Your House and two performances held in the USA during the seventies and eighties), and the strategies of cooperation and autonomy adopted by the five musicians over time in both economic and human fields (strategies that have clearly allowed them to fully realize their cultural projects, providing them with a degree of autonomy, freedom, and control over their lives and works, which very few black artists can boast of having had - Miles Davis and perhaps a few others - in the realm of Great Black Music). When you read a book and a story like this, you wish to know even more, to delve into every detail and particular, but the merit, in my opinion, is that it opens a door to one of the most fascinating adventures in black music, in jazz, and more broadly in the culture of black people (as Don Moye always loved to define it: the People of the Sun). The Art Ensemble Of Chicago managed to merge the various performative arts (music, theater, dance) into a single artistic activity, which turned out to be a perfect expression of cultures different from those of the white-Western world: from the most ancient to the most modern. Africa connects to ancient Afro-Egyptian and so forth, in a stunning link, especially for the apparent simplicity with which they seemed to present it to us. This was of course possible thanks to their extraordinary competence and their great musical, artistic, and human skills. To their infinite sense of connection to such cultures and the aim of proposing them in a constant and coherent discourse. The passing of Lester Bowie first and then Malachi Favors unfortunately interrupted this collective path, although it was sporadically continued by the other three members in the 2000s. Listening to much of their musical works and live performances after reading Steinbeck’s account will be an exciting and intriguing experience for everyone: both for those who have always been passionate about the Ensemble and their Chicago and non-Chicago musical circle (Braxton, Taylor, all the AACM artists), and for those who, in the field of jazz and beyond, have not previously deepened their understanding of this type of musical approach. A cordial thanks goes to Pino Saulo (indeed a great connoisseur of the Art Ensemble and this music), who, as always, gave ample emphasis to the Italian publication of the book by Quodlibet from the frequencies of Radio3.