Kickstarter

Angel City Arts honors Roscoe Mitchell, a living legend who turns 71 this year, with a special tribute concert at the 2011 Angel City Jazz Festival. Watch the video featuring Nels Cline, guitarist in Wilco, explaining the project.

One of the most influential woodwind players to come out of Chicago's AACM movement of the mid-'60s, Roscoe Mitchell is a brilliant and adventurous improviser, and founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He’s also an acclaimed composer of new music and is currently the “Distinguished Darius Milhaud Professor of Composition” at Mills College in Oakland, CA. Anyone who has ever met Roscoe can't help but be inspired by his warm, welcoming manner, and his generosity of spirit.

The Angel City Jazz Festival is hosting this tribute concert on October 2nd at REDCAT in the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex. Roscoe’s trio with percussionist William Winant and woodwind player James Fei will perform a new piece that Roscoe has written for the occasion. In addition, percussionist Alex Cline will lead an all-star ensemble in a special performance of Roscoe’s landmark composition People in Sorrow, featuring eleven distinguished musicians including saxophonist Oliver Lake, vocalist Dwight Trible, pianist Myra Melford, harpist Zeena Parkins, and bassist Mark Dresser.

Because this theater only holds 200 people, and we want to keep the price of tickets affordable, we need to raise additional funds to help cover the following expenses:

- Artists Fees - We will have 14 world class musicians appear at this concert and we want to ensure that everyone gets paid a fair fee.

- Traveling expenses -  Eight out of the 14 musicians participating are coming from out of town and will require plane tickets and hotel rooms.

- Instrument Rental - harp, timpani, numerous percussion instruments.

- Production Expenses - rental of additional sound reinforcement equipment.

- Recording Expenses - we will hire a professional recording engineer to document this one of a kind performance.