During the sixties and into the seventies, a black consciousness grew out of decades of oppression and the eventual belief that change could actually be achieved. Whether or not that latter part of that is true – even today – the fact that groups began springing up in major cities which worked to enrich the lives of folks in the city is a remarkable thing. And that it all happened at about the same time, almost miraculous.

Chicago sported the AACM, perhaps the best known cadre of this type. But St. Louis too had it’s own cohort of musicians. And while both groups worked to educate the inner city’s citizenry through music, workshops and the like, only the Black Artists Group (BAG) out of St. Louis included performance to the extent that it did.

With such a long and storied history as a theater town, it’s surprising that AACM didn’t work in this mode as well. The lack of space in Chicago’s urban core and the exorbitant rents might have had something to do with that seeing as BAG was able to secure a building for a one dollar per year.

Either way, the confluence of performance, visual art and improvised music group up in St. Louis around BAG and its core members Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill and Hamiet Bluiett. Lake is today probably the best know player out of this group, but his cohort did a great many things to broaden the scope of improvised musics.

After becoming fed up with what was no doubt an indifferent public in St. Louis, though, BAG absconded to Paris for something like five years. A number of noted players worked out the same move during the time. And for that reason, avant musics flourished in France during the late sixties and early seventies. AACM had some extraordinarily prolific years there. But BAG recorded a disc simply called In Paris during 1973.

Comprising four tracks, the disc doesn’t present a musical idea twice. With it’s opening number, the disc grants listeners entrance into the realm of saxophone players who don’t play notes, instead playing off the instrument’s pads resulting in a breathy, light tapping sound. It wasn’t the first time the ‘trick’ was used, but it sounds crisp. Following that’s something of a traditional free jazz track, if that makes any sense. But then it’s back to what some might find to be frivolous noise. And it might be, but in the best way possible.