Art Ensemble Master Class

Art Ensemble of Chicago Panel Discussion at Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, TN in March 2019. John Schaefer moderates panel discussion with Art Ensemble members, Roscoe Mitchell, Tomeka Reid, Junius Ponds and Hugh Ragin.

In our yoga class on Monday Jeffery was telling us that our feet get bigger as we age. I thought it was because we walked the Camino. He also said our ears get bigger. And that reminded me of the video Peggi shot of the Art Ensemble panel discussion at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville. We are still taking the breadth of that experience in.

Peggi assembled the five video clips she shot and we posted it here. After the discussion I was able to tell Roscoe Mitchell how much of an impact “Les Stances a Sophie” had on me in 1970. Fontella Bass’s vocal on the funky “Theme de Yoyo,” was a direct line from the Motown singles we grew up on and the avant-garde. It made me a lifelong Art Ensemble fan and I feel very lucky to have heard their fiftieth anniversary show.

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