Sound (Roscoe Mitchell album)

Sound
Studio album by
Roscoe Mitchell
Released1966 (1966)
RecordedAugust 10–26, 1966
StudioSound Studios (Chicago)
GenreFree jazz, avant-garde[1]
Length37:12
LabelDelmark
ProducerRobert G. Koester
Roscoe Mitchell chronology
Before There Was Sound
(2011) 		Sound
(1966) 		Old/Quartet
(1967)

Sound is the debut album by free jazz saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, recorded in 1966 and released on the Delmark label. It features performances by Mitchell, Lester Bowie, Malachi Favors, Maurice McIntyre, Lester Lashley and Alvin Fielder. The CD reissue includes two takes of "Sound", which were edited together to form the original LP version, and an alternative take of "Ornette".

According to Alvin Fielder, "[the] music was rehearsed. It sounds unrehearsed but it was that loose...For Sound, we rehearsed four to five days per week...It took us two recording days to do Sound and it went well."[2] Wadada Leo Smith commented: "It's no accident that Roscoe called that important piece of his Sound. Sound - not pitch - that's the difference."[3] According to Mitchell, "[t]he musicians are free to make any sound they think will do, any sound that they hear at a particular time. That could be like somebody who felt like stomping on the floor... well, he would stomp on the floor. And you notice the approach of the musicians to their instruments is a little different from what one would normally hear... I always 'felt' a lot of instruments - and I feel myself being drawn to it. I'm getting more interested in music as strictly atmosphere, not so much of just standing up playing for playing's sake, but my mind stretches out to other things, like creating different sounds."[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Allmusic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Weiss, Ken (Jan–Mar 2017). "Alvin Fiedler [sic] - Maybe Not New But Something Different". Cadence Magazine. 43 (1 (421)). Portland, Oregon: Cadence Media LLC: 81. ISSN 0162-6973.
  3. ^ Wilmer, Val (2018). As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution 1957-1977. Serpent's Tail. p. 160. ISBN 978-1788160711.
  4. ^ Wilmer, Val (2018). As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution 1957-1977. Serpent's Tail. pp. 160–161. ISBN 978-1788160711.