Art Ensemble of Chicago Baptizum

The Art Ensemble of Chicago's album Bap-tizum is a great live recording. Much of the Art Ensemble's best work is done in live concert settings rather than behind the recording console in a studio. This album has everything an Art Ensemble fan could dream of. The beginning of the concert features chaotic shouting and screaming from Malachi Favors (bass). This line-up features all the original members of the Art Ensemble including Joseph Jarman (sax, reeds, percussion), Lester Bowie (trumpet, percussion), Roscoe Mitchell (sax, reeds, percussion), Don Moye (drums, percussion), and Malachi Favors (bass). The album was recorded live at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1972.

       What is so great about this album is that it has everything that the Art Ensemble would be known for to this very day in 2014. The music has the Black jazz sensibility, humor, blues, post-bop,, and a hip style of free-jazz that was just beginning to be noticed back in 1972. This isn't your suit and tie jazz band and you can tell just by hearing it. The album got great reviews and I would say it is a must have for free-jazz fans and Art Ensemble of Chicago fans.
     For me the highlight of the album was a tune called Ohnedaruth, which is the longest piece on the album, consisting of 15 minutes and written by the whole band. It features shouting, lots of percussion, wild thunderous drumming, and tons of free playing by the horns, especially the trumpet.  And who could forget their closing song that the group still uses to this day to end concerts, Odwalla. Its a great ending piece that is very catchy and boppish with the melodic lines. If you want to get into free-jazz this might be a little extreme to start with but if you like this, then you will learn to love free-jazz that is very, as my friends have said the group, "out there", kind of like the name of the Eric Dolphy album.