Word: artfully
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...experimentation with sonic textures is further developed through their use of what exasperated liner note editors have dubbed "little instruments." All kinds of bells gongs, whistles, shakers, bicycle horns, bongo drums, zithers, woodblocks, and assorted simple percussion instruments are used by Art Ensemble members to richen the fabric of their music. Usually regarded as gimmicks or novelty items, these little instruments have become an essential feature of the AEC's musical language. When the group travelled to Europe, they packed literally hundreds of these odd tools of their trade. The little instruments provide memorable visual images--Jarman serenely blowing...
...FIRST IMPRESSION that any performing group makes upon its audience is visual, and the outlandish physical appearance of the Art Ensemble is only natural for a band that seeks to use every available means of expression. Just as in the music, the Art Ensemble attains their visual goal through the highly personal contributions of the individual members; Mitchell, in the standard dungarees and open-collar shirt of the jazzman, is as much a part of the AEC tableau as is Moye in his coolie hat and war paint...
...early days the Art Ensemble's performance could be programmatic or even 60s-melodramatic; they once scheduled a concert in one Chicago hall and then performed in another. Today the Art Ensemble eschews formal theatrics, but they continue to affect a stage deportment that communicates--their movements can be stylized or abandoned, approaching sacred ceremony one moment and slapstick hokum the next. Jarman is the most consciously animated. During a drum solo he may turn his back and raise his arms as if in supplication or approach a microphone as if to sing but content himself with making faces...
...crest of public interest and acceptance. But as Lester Bowie comments, there has always been a receptive audience for the group's work, and the size of that audience is of no great consequence. The music which so excites critics today is essentially unchanged since the days when the Art Ensemble played for groups of ten or fifteen devotees back in Chicago. Through years of poverty and even a self-imposed exile, the Art Ensemble of Chicago has remained scrupulously true to their original and challenging language of expression; their longevity is a tribute to the perseverence of art...
...week's events climax next Saturday afternoon along both banks of the river, between the Western Ave. and Eliot St. bridges. Last year nearly 100,000 people viewed the environmental art, sampled the ethnic food, or just listened to the music on the festival's final day, and Molly Miller, publicity director for the Cambridge Arts Council, which sponsors and organizes the festival, predicts a similar turnout this year. "Our goal is to improve the quality of life in the whole city," she explains. "There'll be one artist to every 100 Cambridge residents...