Roscoe Mitchell

American composer and multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell creates works that erase the boundaries between creative jazz, contemporary classical music, and vanguard improvisation. As an early member of Chicago's revered Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), he co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago. His pre-AEC 1966 debut Sound presented an approach to sound-as-texture, thus offering nearly limitless creative possibilities for an ensemble. Through AEC recordings such as 1969's People in Sorrow and 1979's Nice Guys, Mitchell carved out an oft-imitated multi-dimensional approach to musical dialogue, utility, and invention. In solo works, such as 1977's Nonaah, 1981's Snurdy McGurdy & Her Dancin' Shoes, and 2017's Bells for the South Side, he carried his sound as a textural motif from complete abstraction to swinging post-bop, children's songs, and R&B. 2020's Splatter was recorded live at an Italian jazz festival in collaboration with a symphony orchestra.