With no sign of slowing down at eighty-four, Roscoe Mitchell has lately spun off a string of records showcasing the avant-garde giant’s composing prowess, mostly with orchestral backing. His 2024 entry One Head Four People is a return to the uncustomary style of group improvisation he’s pioneered in the late 60s as both a leader and as part of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Made possible in part because of an award Mitchell received from the American Society of Arts and Letters, One Head Four People sees Mitchell leading a new trio/quartet using his decades-old ideas with a new freshness and proving that his approach remains in the vanguard of jazz.
Mitchell’s latest unit has Damon Smith on double bass and Weasel Walter handling drums and percussion. For some numbers, Sandy Ewen is called in to contribute her electric guitar. Mitchell himself exclusively plays the massive bass saxophone, sounding similar to a bassoon, only more brutish.
With his bass sax, Mitchell acts as conductor for “Ruckus,” offering a sketch and leaving the others to fill out. None of them choose the conventional route for their roles: Ewen is heard mainly through string scrapes and the low din of electronic effects. Smith alternates between arco and pizzicato but plays percussively. Walter steals the show by pulling out great assortment of percussion splashes not widely heard.
“Ripples” — by far the longest running track here — is a series of solo performances, and amazing ones, too, led off by Walter. Mitchell leaves the biggest impression with his bass saxophone: he never pushes the beast hard, he caresses it and coaxes it and uses its fit as a lumbering creature to an advantage. Smith turns his bass into a companion to that bass sax, the scraped strings act as a stand-in for a higher-pitched reed.
Walter and Smith eschew the normal rhythm section roles and set up a non-tonal festival for Mitchell to ruminate over on “Ruff Ruff Ruffy and Squeaky.” “Shiver” is a stunning bass saxophone soliloquy for the first half. The backing band nudges itself in gradually until the baton is handed off to them with a forceful drums/bass interaction at the conclusion.
Silence is an instrument, too, and for the four-part “Sustain And Ring,” Walter deftly manipulates the spaces between the timbres and lets all the fascinating tone-colors he wrests from his tool belt hover in the air.
Mitchell also sits out “The Final Bell” but Ewen returns, leaving her largest impact by going far out into the hinterlands, making odd tone colors that mesh well with Walter and Smith.
We’re fortunate to have such an influential iconoclast in our midst today and even more fortunate that Roscoe Mitchell is still adding meaningfully to his iconoclastic catalog. One Head Four People is currently available, from Wide Hive Records. Get it from Amazon.
*** Roscoe Mitchell CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Roscoe Mitchell – ‘One Head Four People’ (2024) - January 6, 2025
- Cheer-Accident – ‘Vacate’ (2024) - January 3, 2025
- Patrice Rushen – ‘Prelusion’ (1974, 2024 Remaster) - January 2, 2025
