Nessa Records
“Roscoe Mitchell billed his group as the ART ENSEMBLE for a midnight concert at the Harper Theater on Saturday, December 3, 1966. This name was used for performances until June of 1969 when the quartet of Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, and Malachi Favors was advertised (by a concert promoter in France) as THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHIGAGO .
This is a comprehensive collection of recordings by the ART ENSEMBLE before the geographical qualification was deemed necessary.”
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The above is on the cover of the 5-CD box The Art Ensemble (1967/68), which documents early recordings by Mitchell, Bowie, Favors, Phillip Wilson, Jarman, Charles Clark, Thurman Barker, and Robert Crowder.
To understand this truly avant-garde music, it is crucial to understand its historical context. Some other important jazz records recorded circa 1967 were:
Miles Davis Nefertiti: state of the art modernism
Ornette Coleman The Empty Foxhole: O.C. in search of pure feeling, thinks he has it with 10-year old Denardo (the much better record is 1969’s Crisis)
Cannonball Adderley Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!: crossover jazz—funk/fusion precursor
Thelonious Monk Underground: the last Monk record with new tunes
Sonny Rollins East Broadway Run Down: Rollins’ most convincing interaction with free jazz, and the last great Rollins record
McCoy Tyner The Real McCoy: state of the art post-Coltrane modality
Cecil Taylor Conquistador!: love the sloppy but detailed heads with Cyrille’s quasi-latin beat beneath
Albert Ayler In Greenwich Village: some of the most powerful Ayler recordings, especially “The Truth is Marching In” and “Light in Darkness”
During ‘66-’68 Charles Mingus didn’t have a record label, and John Coltrane’s last studio record, Expressions, was recorded in spring ’67, just weeks away from the first date on the Art Ensemble box.
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This list suggests how much knowledge jazz had accumulated by the late sixties. The most outstanding thing about this early Art Ensemble music is the ferocious determination of great players to advance the music even further. The Art Ensemble didn’t imitate any of the styles on the above roster. Famously, it was Chicago music. New York City—where all those other records were recorded—was far away, with its own hectic pace. When compared to any New York band playing free, The Art Ensemble was spacious, delicate, and thoughtful.
In addition, Mitchell and Bowie were among the first post-modern improvisers. (Jaki Byard was ahead of them by five years.) Right away on disc one of the set, there is a twelve-bar blues with a backroom beat called “Old” and funky number called “Tatas-matoes.” These pop references sit comfortably next to 20-30 minute free pieces. Even on Roscoe Mitchell’s unaccompanied “Solo” the post-modernist grab-bag is evident: Mitchell arpeggiates a Bb triad over and over again on his horn as unapologetically as a pre-bopper—‘course, he also uses squeaky extended techniques, bells, harmonica, and atonal lines.
The first two discs of the box have the mysterious and important Phillip Wilson on drums. Wilson was to leave the Chicago avant scene, go on the road with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, have a hit and miss career in New York, and die with his throat cut while tied to chair in his Harlem apartment. (Drugs.) His greatest record is Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D., but these quartet and trio tracks with Mitchell, Bowie, and Favors give even more of an indication of how talented a free player he was.
The last disc has one of Robert Crowder’s (the conga player on Art Blakey’s The African Beat and the founder of the Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble ) only recorded performances on drum set. He sounds great playing straight-up swing on “Carefree.”
The middle discs have marvelous trios by Mitchell, Bowie, and Favors (this is some of the best music on the set) and the debut of Joseph Jarman, who kicks the energy level up about 200%.
The box was produced in 1993 by Chuck Nessa, and is $75. Is it hard to find? “Do The Math” readers will recall our response to the Art Ensemble’s Tribute to Lester. This sudden romance sent us on a search, and reliable authorities told us to “hear the Nessa box.” No record store nor Amazon had it. We called information for “Nessa records” in Whitehall, Michigan, used PayPal, and a few days later the box showed up, labeled “This is number 2413 of a limited edition of 2500.” Apart from the considerable beauty of the music, the package should be a model for all similar projects, with great photos and notes by Nessa and Terry Martin (who recorded most of the music in various basements and apartments).
There is no Nessa website, just Chuck in Whitehall with some great product and packaging materials. He seems very comfortable waiting for the world to find him. His reputation with the musicians he’s worked with is excellent.
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As a public service for collectors (it doesn't seem to be on the internet otherwise), here is a list of everything Nessa has ever put out:
n-1 Lester Bowie Numbers 1 & 2 (available in Art Ensemble Box – ncd-2500)
n-2 Roscoe Mitchell Congliptious (available in Art Ensemble Box – ncd-2500)
n-3 Art Ensemble of Chicago People In Sorrow (rights have reverted to EMI-France)
n-4 Art Ensemble of Chicago Les Stances a Sophie (rights have reverted to EMI-France)
n-5 Roscoe Mitchell Old/Quartet (available in Art Ensemble Box – ncd-2500)
n-6 Von Freeman Have No Fear (cd issued in Japan w/extra track)
n-7 Warne Marsh All Music (available as ncd-7 w/7 bonus tracks)
n-8 Ben Webster Did You Call? (rights have reverted to Ensayo-Spain)
n-9/10 Roscoe Mitchell Nonaah (out of print)
n-11 Von Freeman Serenade & Blues (available as ncd-11 w/extra track)
n-12 Air Air Time (available as ncd-12)
n-13 Lucky Thompson Body & Soul (rights have reverted to Ensayo – Spain)
n-14/15 Roscoe Mitchell LRG/The Maze/SII Examples (available as ncd-14)
n-16 Charles Tyler Saga of the Outlaws (out of print)
n-17 Bobby Bradford/John Stevens vol. 1 (available on lp only)
n-18 Bobby Bradford/John Stevens vol. 2 (out of print)
n-19 Wadada Leo Smith Spirit Catcher (available on lp only)
n-20 Roscoe Mitchell Snurdy McGurdy (available as ncd-20 HDCD encoded)
n-21 Hal Russell NRG Ensemble (cd issued in Japan – we have a few copies for sale)
n-22 Eddie Johnson Indian Summer (available on lp only)
n-23 Fred Anderson The Missing Link (available as ncd-23 w/extra track)
n-24 Hal Russell/Mars Williams Eftsoons (available on lp only)
The following 2 titles were never issued as lps, but are available on cd, pressed in GB by our licensee
n-25 Hal Russell NRG Ensemble + Charles Tyler Generation
n-26 Wadada Leo Smith Procession of the Great Ancestry (NOW OUT OF PRINT)
compact discs $15 each
ncd-2500 is $75
LPs are $8 each
Phone (231) 894-4088
P.O.Box 394, Whitehall, MI 49461
nessarecords@charter.net
Note that many of the records are not available, and that the Art Ensemble box (ncd-2500) contains a lot more music than the combination of n-1, n-2, and n-5.
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Very special thanks to Chuck Nessa for generously allowing Do The Math to put up a couple of excerpts from The Art Ensemble (1967-68).
Here is Roscoe Mitchell’s 12-bar blues solo on “Old” with Malachi Favors and Phillip Wilson.
Download old__excerpt.mp3
Here is Lester Bowie’s solo on “Carefree” (Take 2), with Favors and Robert Crowder. Mitchell’s percussion is priceless. In later years of the AECO, Don Moye would play gongs and honkers during swing tunes too.
Download carefree__excerpt.mp3
Here is the first minute of Mitchell, Bowie, and Favors on “Number 2—Trio version.”
Download number_2__excerpt.mp3
All these tunes are by Mitchell. In their complete versions, the blues lasts about 8 minutes, the swinger is 3, and the trio is about 22.
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(Nessa was also on board for the Mingus retrospective on Uptown Records: Charles 'Baron' Mingus, West Coast, 1945-49. A good article about Nessa’s involvement in the Mingus disc is here.)
