The Art Ensemble of Chicago On Les Stances à Sophie

Only on rare occasions does a soundtrack overshadow the film for which it was composed. One obvious example is Les Stances à Sophie (Sophie’s Ways). This 1971 film by Israeli film director Moshé Mizrahi disappeared shortly after its release but it is now available again thanks to the efforts of Soul Jazz Records. Also available is the film’s staggering soundtrack which the Art Ensemble of Chicago recorded while in Paris in 1970.

Les Stances à Sophie is the story of an unlikely romance between a radical feminist and her culturally as well as morally conservative husband. The film was made in France in the aftermath of May 1968. It also features a young and dynamic Bernadette Lafont which perhaps explains why the film is occasionally (and erroneously) referred to as a French New Wave production. Les Stances à Sophie, despite its merits, owes its “long lost cult classic” status to the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

The jazz ensemble had been in France for months when Mizrahi realized that the group’s collective improvisations would be a perfect fit for his film. The Art Ensemble of Chicago arrived in Paris in May of 1969 after being solicited by the French record label BYG Actuel. Work had become difficult to find in Chicago and Europe seemed like a viable option for musicians in need of opportunities and eager to share and spread their enthusiasm for experimental jazz.

Upon arriving, the band checked into a left bank hotel but then relocated to a psychiatric hospital where it stayed for a short period of time. The ensemble ultimately found reasonable and affordable accommodations north of Paris (an old farmhouse located in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt). While in France, the Art Ensemble of Chicago participated in a number of recording sessions (including the one that became the backbone of Brigitte Fontaine’s Comme à la radio). However, most of the ensemble’s time was spent rehearsing and performing new material in or around Paris.

George Lewis, in A Power Stronger than Itself : The AACM and American Experimental Music, allocates a full chapter to discussing the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s experience in France. The following review of a performance at the Théâtre Lucernaire appears in the book:

It sounds like Xenakis …. Wait, there’s Stockhausen, with a beat to boot – here a pop progression, there we’re a bit bored – Klangfarben-melodie- etc., etc. The AACM does everything. Coming into the Lucernaire, watch out for how they’re picking your pockets; you’ll be beaten, robbed, then abused, and sent back totally naked and crying for your mother. But certainly not back home …. If you knew how to listen to the AACM of Chicago, you would become, all at once, a subversive terrorist. You’ll see how intoxicating it is to kidnap Boulez, to kill Berio, or to beat up Xenakis.

Lewis does not say very much about Les Stances à Sophie but it is easy to imagine Mizrahi being profoundly impressed by the group’s performances.

The session for Les Stances à Sophie took place on July 22, 1970. One day sufficed to record what ranks as one of the most mesmerizing jazz soundtracks ever pressed onto vinyl. This is a brilliant album.

This is the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

“thème de yoyo”