People in Sorrow cover

People in Sorrow

Released

During their sojourn in Paris, which lasted from 1969 to early 1972, the Art Ensemble recorded over a dozen albums; this is among the most striking. A single 40-minute piece stretched across two sides of vinyl, it was made before drummer Famoudou Don Moye joined, so it begins as a meditative, sparse soundscape — the horns whisper and keen as Malachi Favors’ bass rumbles along and occasional splashes of hand-held percussion mark intervals — but in its final third it builds to multi-horn polyphony, sometimes quite beautiful, as one member, likely Roscoe Mitchell, subverts it all by producing a seemingly endless wavering tone like a malfunctioning door-buzzer from an unidentified reed instrument.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Mexican Pavilion, New Orleans 1884 cover

Mexican Pavilion, New Orleans 1884

Ramiro González Jazz Trío
Guitar cover

Guitar

Sonny Sharrock
Godbluff cover

Godbluff

Van der Graaf Generator
Thumbscrew cover

Thumbscrew

Thumbscrew
Sun on Sand cover

Sun on Sand

Joshua Redman, Brooklyn Rider, Patrick Zimmerli
Lebroba cover

Lebroba

Bill Frisell, Wadada Leo Smith, Andrew Cyrille
Good Days cover

Good Days

Chicago Underground Quartet