| Lester
Bowie (b.
1953, St. Louis) is one of the most forward thinking trumpeters in the
present day. He has contributed much in the areas of collective improvisation
and in extending the timbral range of his instrument. His work with the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and in the Art Ensemble
of Chicago has shown him as a progressive force in jazz. His experiments
in creating new voices for the trumpet further show him as a unique and
searching instrumentalist.
In his home town of St. Louis, Bowie gained his first musical experiences playing with blues and R&B bands including Albert King and Little Milton Campbell. A move in 1965 to Chicago to become musical director for R&B singer Fontella Bass (and future wife) also gave him the opportunity to start playing with some of the progressive thinking talent in the area, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton and Joseph Jarman. These musicians along with Bowie founded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) with Abrams as the first president on May 8th, 1965. This non-profit organization encouraged free collective improvisation and progressive composition and hosted concerts and radio shows around the Chicago area of progressive jazz music. In 1969 Bowie became the next president of the AACM and while in Paris founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago along with multi-saxophone/percussionists Mitchell and Jarman as well as bassist Malachi Flavors. The AEOC still performs to this day. The music of the AEOC is always exploratory and moving. Bowie concentrates most his efforts on the trumpet and flugel horn with a little bit of percussion playing. On listening to "The Art Ensemble Of Chicago Live" an extended work recorded in 1972 after their return to Chicago from their Paris sabbatical, we hear Bowie's unique ability to change the timbre of his instrument to suit the changing mood of the music. He can make it growl, whine, whisper and also sing with a beautiful subtle vibrato. In this way he also borrows from the history of jazz sometimes having the brash sound of early Dixieland or the quick legato sound of the bebop era along with his own invented timbre. As with the rest of the band he is an exquisite listener and seems to know just how to augment the current moment in the flowing improvisation. On his own Bowie has much interest in the free interpretation of popular song. The recording "The Great Pretender" does a cover of this rock and roll classic that is humorous and irreverent. The free interpretation shows as a loose adherence to the pulse between all instruments and the addition of atonal flourishes in the midst the theme statement. In the middle "solo" section the band develops the song by further breaking it down and participating in spontaneous improvisation based loosely on the form. (This approach was also incorporated into the AEOC in the later days in which the band would often play a jazz standard or a calypso tune in their own unique way.) Also on this recording there is an multi-track experiment "Oh, How The Ghost Sings" that is a montage of Bowie's trumpet effects and timbral voices further showing his progressive attitude. As a continuation of his use of popular song Bowie founded Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy in the mid-Eighties, an eight piece all brass band (with the addition of drums) including French horn and tuba that plays standards and covers as well as compositions and arrangements of the members, most especially trombonist Steve Turre. The readings here are much more straight forward than some earlier work but the power of the band is exceptional. A good recorded example would be the recent "The Fire This Time" dedicated to the late drummer and compatriot Phillip Wilson. There are some great readings of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," Michael Jackson's "Black and White" and Rashaan Roland Kirk's "Three For A Festival." Bowie's own trumpet voice with his huge timbral vocabulary is as always evocative and inventive. Bowie has also contributed much as a sideman, specifically with the other members of the AEOC as well as in bands lead by Archie Shepp, Jack DeJohnette and David Murray. He also replaced Don Cherry in 1986 in the free jazz ensemble The Leaders which also included Arthur Blythe and Chico Freeman. In their recording "Out Here Like This" we get another chance to hear Bowie's timbral effects that again often reference trumpet stylings of previous days. Lester Bowie is a unique musician with an amazing virtuosity and adaptability. He has promoted progressive jazz with his involvement in the AACM and has helped to form the developments in this genre. Listening to his multi-faceted style and his extraordinary and experimental musical concepts is an education and a pleasure.
Selected Discography:
The Fifth Power
- Black Saint BSR-0020 - 1978 |