Roscoe Mitchell

• 4 1/2 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

A really wonderful album by Roscoe Mitchell and his semi-electric "sound ensemble" – a group that's as devoted to the exploration of sonic space as they are the expression of improvised jazz.

The work's got a wonderfully fragile quality – like some of the best Mitchell work of the type – and the album shifts between very spare and floating tracks, and other numbers that have a more full-on jazz-based sound. The group has Mitchell playing on his usual array of reeds, plus Spencer Barefield on guitar, Jaribu Shahid on bass, Hugh Ragin on trumpet, and Tani Tabbal on drums and percussion – and titles include "Stomp & The Far East Blues", "Sing/Song", "CYP", "March", and "Round"

PERSONNEL:

• Roscoe Mitchell (soprano, alto & tenor sax, clarinet, flute)
• Hugh Ragin (trumpet, flugelhorn)
• Jaribu Shahid (bass, electric bass, cello, percussion)
• Tani Tabbal (drums, percussion)
• A.Spencer Barefield (guitar, piano)

Recorded December 11 & 12, 1980 at Curtom Recording Studio

TRACKS:

• 01. Sing/Song
• 02. CYP
• 03. Stomp And The Far East Blues
• 04. March (Composition 40 Q)
• 05. Round
• 06. Snurdy McGurdy And Her Dancin' Shoes