(SOUNDBITE OF THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO COMPOSITION, "JA") WHITEHEAD: Author Paul Steinbeck doesn't say the Art Ensemble peaked in the 1980s, but he speeds through their later years. Longtime ...

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the ...

Famoudou Don Moye was in his early 20s, an expatriate jazz drummer working in Paris, when he got the invitation to join the Art Ensemble of Chicago. With it came a friendly admonition, from the ...

The Art Ensemble of Chicago was already six years into an acclaimed career when it had its first extended run at an American jazz club. In honor of the occasion — at the Five Spot in the East ...

"We're probably entering the age of the super-musician now," says Roscoe Mitchell, founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, "someone who moves freely through music. It involves a lot." ...

The Art Ensemble of Chicago has gone on in the face of adversity for 50 years; it certainly wasn’t going to let a Secret Service logjam stop it. Some protectee or another was at the Kennedy ...

Joseph Jarman, a saxophonist, flutist, woodwind player and percussionist who helped expand the parameters of performance in avant-garde jazz, especially as a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago ...

The Art Ensemble of Chicago isn’t just a band — it’s a way of life. That’s why this magnificent organization can flourish for decades, despite changing musical tastes, an imploding ...

The jazz bassist Malachi Favors, for 35 years a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, died on Jan. 30 in Chicago. He was 76. The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his daughter, Malba Favors Allen.

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is one of the most famous performing groups in jazz. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, this free-improvising ensemble was born out of the explosion of musical ...

Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today we revisit an essential 1979 example of self-described ...

The Art Ensemble of Chicago’s 1972 performance at the University of Chicago’s Mandel Hall–captured on the Delmark album Live–was both a homecoming and a reawakening for the group.