Art Ensemble of Chicago in Charlottesville 23 September 1984

Some more Joseph Jarman coming up, here with the rest of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. This is a live recording at the Old Cabell Hall, located at the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville. As you can see from the photos below, the Hall is used for musical performances, but also for all sorts of official events, including talks by American presidents. As we know, Charlottesville was in the headlines a couple of years ago for all the wrong reasons, but the student body was clearly on the side of the counter-protesters for, we may add, all the right reasons.

One reason for selecting this one is that it has an extended version of "Prayer for Jimbo Kwesi" which starts the second track on this recording. Definitely hall-like acoustics on this concert which adds the right ambiance to this concert. I once had the opportunity to listen to them in a medieval hall in my hometown which somehow felt entirely appropriate.

The Art Ensemble is here in the usual quintet form. A little later I will post the later quartet in a setting that puts the acoustics in as a sort of fifth player, but we'll get to that.

The track listing is based on a different track splitting than what's on the back cover of the art work appended to this post.

What we hear will be roughly based on this track order:

1. Unknown - 14:12/Zero / Unknown - 24:57/Carefree - 00:54
2. Prayer For Jimbo Kwesi - 30:39/Unknown - 02:44/Chant / Unknown (cut) - 12:44
3. Unknown (cuts in) - 04:59/New York Is Full Of Lonely People - 06:24
4. Funky AEOC (cuts in) / Odwalla - 09:48

As always, enjoy!