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Lester Bowie

(1941–)

Frederick, MD, United States

Frederick, Maryland-born trumpeter and founding member of Chicago's free-jazz collective Art Ensemble of Chicago. Formed Brass Fantasy in 1984, covering Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston songs with an all-brass ensemble — reinterpreting pop through half-valve effects, growls, and smears. A boundary-dissolving project that applied avant-garde jazz vocabulary to pop material. Passed away 1999.

Lester BowieLester Bowieレスター・ボウイ — trumpeter of Chicago's free-jazz collective Art Ensemble of Chicago — formed Brass Fantasy in 1984 and covered Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Jacksonマイケル・ジャクソン songs with an all-brass ensemble of tuba, trombone, and trumpets. They rescored MJ's basslines for tuba and reinterpreted them with half-valve effects, growls, and smears — free-jazz vocabulary applied to pop material. A boundary-dissolving experiment that used pop songs as raw material for avant-garde play.

— Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy — uDiscover Music