Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Orchestra, 8/9/2007

Nicole Mitchell convened an expanded version of her Black Earth Ensemble, for this occasion called the Black Earth Orchestra, last night at Millennium Park for a tribute to the late great Alice Coltrane. Featuring a stellar lineup of local musicians, she also brought in Myra Melford on piano and harmonium, Matana Roberts on alto sax, and Maia on harp. The instrumentation of the local musicians included two violinists, two flutes in addition to Ms. Mitchell's, trumpet, tenor sax, bass and cello, a vocalist, a drummer and a percussionist.

Nicole named the concert Many Paths to the Sea, and all of the music was brand new compositions for this one time show. It wasn't a tribute where the artist's music is played repertory style; instead, Nicole drew from the inspiration of Alice Coltrane and also from some of the same areas that inspired Mrs. Coltrane, such as her spiritual practices.

In front of a large crowd at the park (I'd estimate somewhere in the realm of 5,000 in attendance), the band opened up with what I'd call a structured free improvisation. There was definitely free improvising going on, but I could see Nicole leading and there was a sense of arc, entrances and exits by various instruments, and it ended in a very clear manner.

A bunch of people got up and left during this portion. A mini-exodus. Amongst the things I heard uttered:

"Are they just warming up or is this supposed to be music?"

"You've got to be kidding me, this isn't serious music."

"They should be ashamed of themselves for playing like that in front of people."

It should be made clear that lots of tourists come to these Millennium Park shows completely unaware of what they're getting themselves into. I oftentimes wonder what they imagine when they hear about a "jazz concert": did they think Benny Goodman would be there to move them with swing? Were they expecting Bill Evans to caress them with his melodic lyricism? Maybe they were expecting Charlie Parker to rise from the dead and delight them with his bebop virtuosity?

It's a shame that some people have such a low tolerance for risk, and such small reserves of patience in their music listening habits. If they stuck around they would have heard a little bit of something for everyone.

In any case, people left, but many, many more remained.

From there Nicole unleashed a tour de force of music, combining complex composed arrangements with incredible playing from all the members of the band. Myra Melford did some time on harmonium, fitting in a tribute to Alice Coltrane. If I had to identify an element of the music that drew from the well of Mrs. Coltrane's sound it would be the groove and sense of trance and drone. There were some heavy grooves laid down by bassist Josh Abrams and cellist Tomeka Reid, with Marcus Evans on drums and Avreeayl Ra on percussion embellishing and aiding the groove.

There were pieces that featured the two violins and three flutes featured that displayed Nicole's classical influences, and I think it was great for her to have flutes to write for. She so often sounds like more than one flute on her own, so I think it allowed her to flesh out her ideas of the possibilities for the instrument.

Some personal highlights included a fantastic piano solo by Myra Melford about halfway into the show, and some intense sax solos from David Boykin and Matana Roberts, who complimented each other so well in style and presence.

All said and done it was an hour and a half straight of music from the Black Earth Orchestra. I don't know if Nicole has considered doing so, but if she hasn't I'll be the first to say that she should listen to the tapes and release this live recording if it holds up to repeated listens (which I think it will).

Next week in Millennium Park we have Muhal Richard Abrams playing a solo set, opposite ragtime wiz Reginald Robinson playing a set. Should be an interesting juxtaposition.

Until next time....