When AEC trumpeter Lester Bowie died in November 1999 at the age of 58, the jazz world lost one of its great originals –­ a flamboyant sound-painter, a great soloist, a musical philosopher, and a charismatic performer. On this memorial album his friends and colleagues give a sense of his freewheeling, larger-than-life character. Powerful and uncompromising, “Tribute To Lester” is the first new Art Ensemble recording on ECM in almost 20 years, and one of their very finest discs.

''The majestic … Tribute to Lester is unlike anything else in the AEC catalog, beginning with a compact overview of the group’s first 30 years. Famoudou Don Moye’s “Sangaredi,” first recorded in abbreviated form in 1987, is treated to a definitive rendition, its African rhythms smartly bubbling from the start and soon weighted with bass, gongs, and bass saxophone. … An extended silence leads to Roscoe Mitchell’s “Suite for Lester”, a tripartite masterstroke of concision that opens with an allusive, poignant soprano saxophone melody reminiscent of his “For Lester B”. … This melody, backed by empathic drums and the bowed bass of Malachi Favors Moghostut, gives way to a serene and full-bodied flute invention in the manner of Bach, complete with variation, that is in turn supplanted by a partying swing number on bass sax – all in little more than five minutes.“Zero/Alternate Line” is what it says – Mitchell’s revision of Bowie’s “Zero”, a … theme introduced by the group on The Third Decade. Mitchell announces the theme on alto in whole-note phrases at a dirge tempo, bringing out the melody’s belly-dancing provenance, then jaunts into tempo, working the changes that give the tune the feeling of infinite circularity – his long, freely sonorous phrases are pumped with connecting triplets. Favors’s “Tutakhamun” recalls the AEC’s genesis, having debuted as a bass solo on Congliptious, by Roscoe Mitchell’s Art Ensemble. …The second half of the album comprises two payoff group improves that illuminate the AEC’s emotional extremes. “As Clear as the Sun” is a stunner. Mitchell’s soprano erupts after a bass and drums passage, and within about four minutes he enters a plane of intensity so profuse you have to laugh at the joy of it all.'' The Village Voice