Nice Guys

While no album can quite replicate The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s performances of free jazz and guerilla theater—as well as their inclusive approach to global music and culture during the group’s live concerts—1979’s Nice Guys comes close. The group's first studio album in five years and their first for ECM, it features the classic quintet of Lester Bowie (trumpet), Roscoe Mitchell (reeds), Joseph Jarman (reeds), Famoudou Don Moye (drums), and Malachi Favors Maghostut (bass); everyone also adds a myriad of hand percussion, whistles, and other noisemakers. The music ebbs and flows from one piece to the next, one minute vamping on a reggae riddem (“Ja”) and the next doing a woozy brand of bebop (“Nice Guys”). Not surprisingly, the longer pieces here are the most revelatory—“Folkus” is like a mystical voyage through the jungle complete with animal calls, while “Dreaming of the Master” is ample proof that these guys could play a swinging brand of bebop and then turn it inside out because they felt like it. Now this classic in the AEC catalog is remastered for digital release on iTunes.