American composer and multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell is a prolific musical polymath whose strategic approach to sound easily blurs the boundaries between creative jazz, contemporary classical music, and vanguard improvisation. His forays into free-time, non-tonal improvisation are as spontaneous, imaginative, and often emotionally riveting. An early member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and a co-founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Mitchell's improvisations and musical conceptualism exercise extraordinary discipline, intellectual rigor, and soul. As evidenced by his 1966 debut album Sound -- a precursor to the AEC -- he presented a new approach to sound-as-texture, that nearly limitless creative possibilities in an ensemble setting. He is simultaneously a patient and impulsive improviser, prone to alternating episodes of order and chaos, clarity and complexity. Through AEC recordings such as 1969's People in Sorrow and 1979's Nice Guys, Mitchell and his compatriots carved out an oft-imitated, never replicated multi-dimensional approach to dialogue, utility, and invention in a group setting. In his solo works, such as 1977's Nonaah, 1981's Snurdy McGurdy & Her Dancin' Shoes, and 2017's Bells for the South Side, he carried the sound as texture motif through settings ranging from complete abstraction to swinging post-bop to children's songs and even funk. In 2020, he issued Splatter, a live jazz festival collaboration with a symphony orchestra in Italy, and a year later, Dots/Pieces for Percussion and Woodwinds.

Born in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois, Mitchell played saxophone and clarinet as a teenager. While stationed in Germany as a member of the Army, he played in a band with tenor saxophone innovator Albert Ayler. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1961, Mitchell played bop with a group of Wilson Junior College students who included bassist Malachi Favors and saxophonists Joseph Jarman, Henry Threadgill, and Anthony Braxton. Mitchell began listening to the recordings of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane. He studied with pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams. In 1962, he began playing in Abrams' newly organized Experimental Band, a rehearsal group that explored many of the contemporary alternatives to conventional jazz improvisation and composition.

In 1965, he became one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a nonprofit organization established by Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AACM were devoted to the same principles as the Experimental Band. In 1966, Mitchell's sextet (with trumpeter Lester Bowie, tenor saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, bassist Favors, trombonist Lester Lashley, and drummer Alvin Fiedler) became the first AACM group to record. Abstract in concept and execution, the album Sound (Delmark) was an in-depth examination of the interaction between sound and silence, utilizing such unorthodox devices as spontaneous collective improvisation, toy instruments, and non-musical noise. A departure from the more extroverted work of the New York-based free jazz players, Sound pointed the way to a new manner of playing jazz-based music. Around this time, Mitchell also performed and recorded as a solo saxophonist. By 1967, the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble consisted of the leader, Favors, trumpeter Lester Bowie, and drummer Phillip Wilson. That combination did not record; Wilson was replaced by Jarman, and in 1969 the group traveled to Europe. The sojourn was very successful. The band -- renamed the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- recorded extensively, particularly in France. The resulting albums formed the initial basis of their reputation.

Mitchell played briefly in St. Louis upon returning to the United States in 1971. He then resettled in Chicago. Around 1974 he established the Creative Arts Collective. Based in East Lansing, Michigan, the group was similar in purpose to the AACM. The '70s found Mitchell expanding on his solo saxophone concept, working with his AACM cohorts in various combinations and performing with the Art Ensemble. The latter group became possibly the most highly acclaimed jazz band of the next two decades, winning critics' polls with regularity. Mitchell also began releasing more albums as a leader during the '70s, including 1974's Solo Saxophone Concerts, 1975's Quartet, and the 1977 double-album Nonaah, featuring Anthony Braxton, Malachi Favors, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill, and others.

The '80s were also a prolific time for Mitchell and saw him continue his work with the AACM and deliver a handful of well-received albums on Black Saint including 1983's Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound & Space Ensembles, 1986's The Flow of Things, and 1987's Live at the Knitting Factory with trumpeter Hugh Ragin, guitarist A. Spencer Barefield, bassist Jaribu Shahid, and percussionist Tani Tabbal.

In the '90s, Mitchell branched out even more, collaborating more frequently with such classical composer/performers as Pauline Oliveros and Thomas Buckner. A trio with Buckner and the virtuoso pianist Borah Bergman was an ongoing and effective unit. He also led the Sound Ensemble, featuring members of his Creative Arts Collective. Also since the '90s, Mitchell has performed and recorded extensively as the leader of his Note Factory ensemble, a group ranging in size from a sextet to a nonet; Note Factory albums include 1993's This Dance Is for Steve McCall and 1999's Nine to Get Ready.

Since 2000, the saxophonist has remained extremely active, releasing a regular stream of recordings with his various ensembles including 2002's Song for My Sister, 2003's Bad Guys, 2004's Solo 3, and 2007's Samsara. In 2010, he delivered the live album Far Side on ECM. He then paired with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and trumpeter Ragin for a 2013 duets album and joined Pauline Oliveros, John Tilbury, and Wadada Leo Smith for 2014's Nessuno. A year later, he reunited with drummer Jack DeJohnette and fellow AACM members pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, bassist Larry Gray, and saxophonist Henry Threadgill for the much-lauded concert album Made in Chicago.

In 2017, Mitchell delivered Four Ways, a studio collaboration with the Yuganaut trio featuring Stephen Rush, Tom Abbs, and Geoff Mann. That same year, the live Bells for the South Side was issued by ECM. A double-length album, it was commissioned by and recorded at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. The historic date marked the first time that Mitchell had contrasted and combined simultaneously the sounds and strategies of his four concurrent working trios. Another collaboration, Ride the Wind, featuring the Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra, followed in 2018. That same year, ECM celebrated the AEC's 50th anniversary with a 21-CD box entitled The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles, that compiled all the group's recordings for the label as well as solo offerings by its members and associates. Also in 2018, he paired with trombonist George Lewis for a live concert recorded during Berlin's CTM Festival; the results appeared the following year as Voyage and Homecoming.

In August 2019, Wide Hive released Littlefield Concert Hall, Mills College. Recorded live with a large orchestra, its members were handpicked by the composer. In August 2020, Mitchell released two albums simultaneously for Bologna, Italy's I Dischi di Angelica, a music festival label that exists solely to issue recordings from its performances. Nessuno captured a 2011 improvised collaborative outing between Mitchell, Pauline Oliveros, John Tilbury, and Wadada Leo Smith. Splatter, recorded in 2019, offered Mitchell's collaboration with vocalist Thomas Buckner and the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, directed by Tonino Battista. 2021's Dots/Pieces for Percussion and Woodwinds, on Wide Hive, captured a series of 2020s shorter pieces. ~ Chris Kelsey

Early in his career, it was typical for jazz critics to compare the extraordinary free jazz pianist Borah Bergman to Cecil Taylor. However, critics subsequently pointed out the folly in such comparisons, perpetuating the very same juxtaposition, instead of listening to Bergman abstracted from such concerns. Though Bergman himself claimed Tristano, Monk, and Powell as influences, he rated comparison with nobody, so singular was his ability as an improvising pianist. Bergman had perhaps the most comprehensive technique of any jazz musician on any instrument. His facility was nonpareil with both hands. Bergman could improvise spontaneous free counterpoint at unfathomable speeds and with remarkable precision. His utterly personal style was due in no small part to his own technical innovations; no pianist in the history of jazz ever developed more speed and agility in his left hand. Additionally, Bergman had refined a technique of playing with crossed hands that augmented his fluency to an even greater degree. Bergman's greatest attributes were, however, the staggering quality and quantity of his ideas, and the ineffable intensity with which he executed those ideas. Bergman was of a kind with the very greatest jazz musicians in terms of originality and inspiration. The only reason now to weigh him against Cecil Taylor is to place the two artists on the same level of creative accomplishment.

Bergman played clarinet as a child, but didn't begin on piano until in his twenties. Bergman determined right away that he wanted to develop an individual voice. As he told the writer Francis Davis, "I knew there was no point in sounding almost as good as Bud Powell." The right-handed Bergman worked for years in strengthening his left hand. For a time, he practiced playing left-handed almost exclusively. Eventually -- as a pianist, at least -- he became ambidextrous. Bergman began recording late as well. His first four albums were solo efforts; the first, Discovery, was released in 1975 on the Chiaroscuro label. Three more would follow, including 1983's A New Frontier and 1985's Upside Down Visions, both on Soul Note. In 1992, the pianist began a series of successful duo collaborations. The first was Inversions on the Muworks label, with the young free-bop altoist Thomas Chapin. Following that came a pair of Soul Note albums that cemented Bergman's reputation, 1993's The Human Factor with drummer Andrew Cyrille and 1994's The Fire Tale with soprano saxophonist Evan Parker. The latter album was especially powerful, matching as it did two of the most formidable improvisers in jazz. His albums from this period include a duo/trio recording with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and vocalist Thomas Buckner, a trio with saxophonists Peter Brötzmann and Thomas Borgmann, and another trio with Brötzmann and Cyrille.

As the '90s drew to a close, Bergman's recorded output continued to rise substantially, as did his profile as one of the music's major contributors. That didn't diminish as the 21st century opened, with Bergman staying active, releasing several live sets and 2003's Meditations for Piano and 2009's Luminescence, both on Tzadik Records. However, Bergman made his last live performances around 2010, and Luminescence (a trio date with bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Kenny Wollesen, with John Zorn featured on alto sax on one track) would prove to be his final album. Reportedly living in a nursing home and suffering from dementia, Borah Bergman died on October 18, 2012 (the same day as saxophonist David S. Ware); the pianist was 85 years old. ~ Chris Kelsey & Steve Leggett