Roscoe Mitchell’s “Nonaah”

Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell solo & “Nonaah” for Lawson tentet, Bad Luck duo, and cello and alto saxophone quartets

Friday, June 7, 8pm
Benaroya Hall’s Nordstrom Recital Hall

Everyone has a Roscoe Mitchell story, maybe expressing some kind of aesthetic consternation, maybe describing the artist’s incredible impact. A distinctly American bard or griot, Chicagoan Mitchell sings us our American heritage through the language of his horns. From there, somewhat miraculously, he brings us to a universal experience. In this presentation, June 7, Nordstrom Recital Hall, Mitchell performs his piece “Nonaah” solo, and many Table and Chairs artists engage with the work in a kind of live mimesis, first by cello quartet, then alto sax quartet, then by Bad Luck duo Chris Icasiano and Neil Welch, then by Jacob Zimmerman’s Lawson tentet.

Chris Icasiano photo by Daniel Sheehan

If this seems overwrought, or the above hyperbolic, consider the impact of Mitchell. Table and Chairs alto saxophonist Jacob Zimmerman, who mentored under Mitchell at Mills College, has done incredible work chronicling the Mitchell effect at blog.tableandchairsmusic.com.

On the site, he’s engaged jazz and avant-garde performers for their Mitchell stories –  including distinct words by bassist William Parker and pianists Matt Shipp, Vijay Iyer, Anthony Coleman, guitarist and bassist Joe Morris, saxophonist Dan Plonsey, guitarists Mary Halvorson and Fred Frith, and Seattle’s Wayne Horvitz, Wally Shoup and Paul Hoskin.

This “Nonaah” program, moving from one interpretation of the piece to another, points to the great artist’s commitment to legacy and self-determination and is likely to have continued impact on audiences and on the participating artists. Mitchell wanted to end the program with the large-ensemble version, Zimmerman says. I think, a somewhat astounding gesture, and gift, in ironic disownment of his own work – simultaneously his lifetime of craft and performance yet not his, everybody’s.

Born in 1940s Chicago, Mitchell began playing the saxophone at a young age. Returning to the States in the early 60s, after U.S. military service in Germany, Mitchell picked up with Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band and Malachi Favors, Joseph Jarman, Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton. He became a founding member of the pioneering Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), still an important Chicago cultural nonprofit fostering modern black music and cultural emergence. Mitchell was a founding member of the explosive and expansive Art Ensemble of Chicago, whose influence will likely extend forever beyond the music collective’s some-thirty-year period of activity. Mitchell has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Minnesota Composer’s Forum and the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. “Mitchell’s innovations as a solo performer, his role in the resurrection of long-neglected woodwind instruments of extreme register, and his reassertion of the composer into what has traditionally been an improvisational form have placed him at the forefront of contemporary music,” writes the AACM.

“Nonaah” first appeared as a melodic sketch on the Art Ensemble’s Fanfare for the Warriors (1973) and most famously lives on the recording Nonaah (1977), with three versions of the piece ranging from 1 minute to 22 minutes, for solo and alto saxophone quartet. Additional arrangements of the piece emerged, and in 2010, the American Composers Orchestra premiered “Nonaah” for chamber orchestra. “Nonaah” tonight includes the debut of Mitchell’s arrangement for Zimmerman’s Lawson ensemble.

The event includes a pre-concert interview, 7:15pm, with Mitchell about his career and the evolution of the renowned piece, with a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Tickets are $20-$30 at benaroyahall.org. More information at nonaah.com.