Sound
WithSound, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell unloosed blazing glory in 1967. Expressing an emphasis on music as, of course, "sound" rather than "tune," Mitchell's sextet starts with an immediately fast gait. The quickness is undergirded by Malachi Favors's bass and Lester Lashley's cello on "Ornette," of which an alternate take opens the CD. Here Lester Bowie's trumpet is early in the cycle of exploration that gave the Art Ensemble of Chicago--of which both Bowie and Mitchell are charter members--such a slurry brass force. Tenor saxophonist Maurice McIntyre develops his twisty solo logic from chunks mulled over, shredded, and unpacked. Mitchell's alto cuts quickly and incisively, as well as providing eerie and lengthy sheets of notes in "Sound 1," where Lashley takes up trombone and provides a slippery brass skyline, with Alvin Fielder's malletted cymbals providing the blustering clouds.--Andrew Bartlett