REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE
ABOUT THE ARTIST/BIOGRAPHY
In the 1970¹s, the Revolutionary Ensemble introduced New York to decided musical advances, many pioneered by Chicago¹s A.A.C.M. musicians. Ex-Chicagoan Leroy Jenkins, who played violin, of all unheard-of modern jazz instruments, had formed his concept from classical, swing, blues, and modern elements and had been one of the radicals who discovered new concepts of sound, space, and musical relationships in the late 1960s. Jerome Cooper had been a somewhat later Chicago explorer, while Sirone¹s freedom of motion had grown out of work with the most visionary New Yorkers. Extensive rehearsal led this cooperative trio to a shared, free sense of dynamics, momentum, and form, and a wholly unique sound: their instrumental recombinations yielded a surprising variety of textures and colors. Most of all, these highly sophisticated personalities played together to create an ensemble music even larger than the sum of its parts. After the long overdue reissue in 2004 of their 1975 recording The Pysche on Mutable Music, the Revolutionary Ensemble - Leroy Jenkins (violin), Sirone (bass), and Jerome Cooper (drums, keyboards) - reunited for both recording and performances. On this live set, each musician is represented by one of their own compositions - Configuration by Sirone, Usami by Leroy Jenkins, and Le-Si-Jer by Jerome Cooper, as well as two group improvisations. All three of these great musicians are at the top of their form here, and one envies the Warsaw audience that attended what turns out to have been their final performance together. Their remarkable realization of the ensemble ideal was still revelatory - and still revolutionary. Back to Artists
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REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE / Counterparts"They morph seamlessly into lengthy, imaginatively conceived improvs, wherein the band's gift for spontaneous composition is given free rein." - Chris Kelsey, Jazz Times
Counterparts is a document of the last live performance by the legendary Revolutionary Ensemble. This recording was made of a performance in Genoa, Italy on November 25, 2005.
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REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE / Beyond the Boundary of TimeBeyond the Boundary of Time documents one of the last live performances of the legendary Revolutionary Ensemble before Leroy Jenkins¹s death in 2007. This recording was made of a performance on May 25, 2005 in Warsaw, Poland.
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REVOLUTIONARY ENSEMBLE / The PsycheIn 1970 the idea of revolution was everywhere - the raging war in VietNam, the desperate antiwar protests that erupted, the ongoing civil rights revolution, and the jazz revolution. In New York City, the center of the jazz world, the free jazz scene - "outside" jazz, underground jazz, the avant garde - was highly active. |