RogueArt

How dare we spend so much valuable energy answering such questions as "What is Jazz?".

WILLIAM PARKER , SOUND JOURNAL

JUST LISTEN!

“It is both serious and hypnotic; this music is also solemn or joyful, angular, occasionally riveting and/or dense in part”


Roscoe Mitchell: composition, alto saxophone
Thomas Buckner: baritone
Nils Bultmann: viola
Joseph Kubera: piano
Vartan Manoogian: violin
Stephen Rush: piano
Hans Sturm: double bass
Joan Wildman: piano
William Winant: tubular bells, orchestra bells, vibraphone


Bells for New Orleans (prelude) (1:33)
9/9/99 (10:33)
Sketches (6:36)
because it's (2:14)
this (4:30)
dim (5:47)
Bells for New Orleans (5:01)
WR/C 2A Opus I (9:49 ) Play 8/8/88 1st Movement (4:24)
8/8/88 2nd Movement (1:50)
8/8/88 3rd Movement (3:33)
9/9/09 (7:09)
Bells for New Orleans (postlude) (2:11)

All compositions by Roscoe Mitchell

Poems “because it’s”, “this” and “dim” are by e.e. cummings

1, 7 and 13 recorded on March 27th 2010, 8 on January 10th 2010 and 12 on August 8th 2010 at Mills College, Oakland, CA, USA; recording and mixing by Robert Shumaker assisted by James Frazier
2, 4, 5 & 6 recorded on February 13th 2003 at Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY, USA: recording and mixing by Tom Hamilton
3 recorded on August 16th 2002 at Audio for the Arts, Madison, WI, USA; recording and mixing by Buzz Kemper
9, 10 & 11 recorded on February 10th 2010 at the Audio Studio, Duderstadt Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; recording by Jason Corey
Liner notes: Bill Shoemaker
Photographs: Jacques Bisceglia
Cover design: Max Schoendorff
Cover realization: David Bourguignon
Executive producer: Michel Dorbon

In the 45 years since he recorded Sound, Roscoe Mitchell’s music has steadily evolved and diversified, making the idea of a comprehensive one-disc survey an impossibility. However, as much as any album, the both/and nature of Roscoe Mitchell’s music is vividly represented on Numbers. Bill Shoemaker, excerpts from the liner notes

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