Though Sound, released in 1966, was reedist Roscoe Mitchell’s debut, the album is also considered the de facto debut of The Art Ensemble of Chicago, the legendary unit featuring trumpeter Lester Bowie and bassist Malachi Favors—both of whom appear here alongside the leader. The AEC, known at first as the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble, released its official debut, A Jackson in Your House, on BYG Actuel three years later. The Mitchell-Bowie pairing on Sound strongly evokes Ornette Coleman with Don Cherry, not least on the track “Ornette.” But the horns of Sound have their own sort of rhythmic energy and timbral nuance. Bowie’s seemingly random harmonica and vocalisms on “The Little Suite” signify a breaking free from convention and inhibition. The pairing of Favors and drummer Alvin Fielder, meanwhile, is an inspired one. And the added presence of tenor saxophonist Maurice McIntyre (aka Kalaparusha) and the utterly fascinating cellist and trombonist Lester Lashley makes for a refreshing improvisational landscape. This is what came to be called “out” music: Dissonant, non-tonal, expressionist “free jazz”—although formal composition was very much a part of the equation for Mitchell and his colleagues. Sound was foundational to a community of players creating their own scene, as well as their own artistic economy, one that thrived under the umbrella of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, or AACM (which continues to evolve and thrive). Mitchell’s later work with Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, and other cutting-edge younger artists speaks to his long-lasting impact and undimmed relevance. On Sound, Mitchell is heard on alto saxophone, clarinet, flute, and recorder in the span of three compositions, elevating a model of multi-reed facility that became hugely influential. Lashley plays cello, engaging contrapuntally with Favors’ bass, on “Ornette” and “The Little Suite,” switching to trombone and bringing a whole other sonic profile to the title track.