Living legend Roscoe Mitchell makes a rare Los Angeles appearance christening The Brick—formerly known as LAXART—with two very special performances. Founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and one of the towering figures in creative music, at 83 Mitchell continues to push and pull at the tenets of musical freedom and discipline, from intricate orchestral compositions to pioneering solo improvisations. Mitchell’s work has recently focused on the bass saxophone, a scarcer member of the single-reed family. Over the last five years, Mitchell has also brought forward his visual art, a feature of his practice since the mid 1960s, and he presents his first West Coast exhibition titled Ra Shu at The Pit, opening Saturday, June 15th.
On Sunday afternoon, Mitchell will perform in a trio with two essential collaborators, vocalist Tom Buckner and guitarist Sandy Ewen. Baritone singer Buckner and Mitchell have worked together for more than four decades, exploring many different approaches to sound and space with a variety of different co-conspirators. Ewen is a more recent partner, having played and recorded in an explosive quartet with Mitchell, bassist Damon Smith, and drummer Weasel Walter. An important figure in the Houston experimental arts scene, she has located to Brooklyn and continues to work across media with horizontal guitar at the center of her sonic universe.
The following day, Monday evening, Mitchell will be joined for a set of duets with vocalist Moor Mother. One of the most galvanizing artists to arise on the experimental music scene in the last decade, Moor Mother has taken any preconceptions one might have about the revolutionary potential of hip-hop and Afrofuturism and thoroughly raised all their stakes, suggesting that the phrase “bring the noise” was more than a catchy line, more than a jingle, but instead offered a blueprint for blackouts, injecting a powerful voice into new music and fusing a poetic vision with broke-funk bricolage.
Come celebrate the soft-opening of The Brick with these singular events featuring Roscoe Mitchell.
