Chicago luminary, multi-wind player Roscoe Mitchell has collaborated over the previous 2 decades with multi-instrumentalist Stephen Rush, here joining Rush's band Yugonaut with Tom Abbs on bass, cello, violin, tuba & digideroo and Geoff Mann on drums, cornet & banjo, to perform these energetic improvisations live at Ann Arbor's Edgefest in 2009.
Label: NESSA Catalog ID: NES 38 Squidco Product Code: 23748
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2017 Country: USA Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 16th and 17th, 2009, by Jason Corey.
8. Four Ways For Yuganaut And Roscoe Mitchell 11:00
9. Son Warship 7:43
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descriptions, reviews, &c.
"A project nearly a quarter century in conception, Four Ways teams the inimitable Roscoe Mitchell with the multi-instrumentalist Stephen Rush's working trio Yuganaut. The twenty-five year marker denotes Rush's first meeting with Mitchell at the University of Michigan where Rush was on faculty. Sixteen years later Mitchell invited Rush to join his Note Factory band at a gig in Victoriaville. Rush returned the favor the following year at Ann Arbor's Edgefest and results of that second meeting comprise this disc. Producer Chuck Nessa was also indispensable in bringing the music into commercial circulation, proof again of his unflagging support and stewardship of Mitchell's for the past fifty-plus years.
Yuganaut's methods and aesthetics draw immediate antecedents in Mitchell's iconic Art Ensemble of Chicago, most obviously in the trio's incorporation of a broad of assortment of instruments into its arsenal. With Mitchell added, Rush estimates their number at approaching fifty, although only a fraction of that number are pressed into service on the disc. Another indelible influence manifests in Rush's use of MicoMoog and Fender Rhodes. The group opens with Tom Abb's "Double Helix", which could reasonably pass for a Sun Ra Arkestral cover in a blindfold test with its loping processional beat carved drummer Geoff Mann and slideshow succession of tonal colors from the composer's brittle bass and Rush's trombone to Mitchell's keening soprano saxophone.
Three spirited and variegated improvisations follow with Yuganaut devising spontaneous sound environments for Mitchell's relentlessly resourceful reed play. Rush's keyboards gain early prominence on the first piece, dialing up the "Cosmic Tones..."-era Ra comparisons again and effectively sounding like cracked Arthur Lyman exotica on LSD. Abbs whacks away at his bass and Mann creates a modest tumult behind his kit for added color. Mitchell's alto and Abbs tuba do a terpsichorean turn on "Improvisation No. 3" flecked by keyboard effects and fluttering brushes while the final piece in the series juxtaposes electronic drones with conscripted commentary by bass and drums with Mitchell adding ghostly, incredibly precise overtones from the edges on soprano.
The concert's second half gives over to three "Cards" pieces composed by Mitchell specifically for the event. Rush credits them as the most difficult pieces of the performance from a player's perspective. It's here where Mitchell's monstrous composerly talent couples with the close and instantly responsive listening of his colleagues and the music becomes effectively untethered from temporal classification or reference. Moments of disorienting dissonance vie with others of surprising tenderness and restraint to create a complementary suite that is at once immersive and galvanizing. Pieces by Rush and Mann complete the program with more overtly tuneful directions and Mitchell's alto work on the former proves particularly affecting in concert with the composer's electronics. Rush notes his ardent willingness for further collaborations. Here's one listener who's hoping Mitchell takes him up on the offer."-Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine