Among hardcore free-blowing and delicate sound-into-silence tiptoeings, Mitchell’s wistfully lyrical Leola becomes a pulsating low-register drone, aided by a swathe of cymbal showers, classical-choral voices, and rousing spoken word from Ayewa. Other highlights include the coolly swinging Kumpa (by Senegalese griot and AEC sidekick Dudu Kouate), the riffy electric groover Funky AECO, the slinkily bass-walking Ensemble signature theme Odwalla, and much more. It’s heartwarming to hear the AEC’s devoted heirs so ready to carry the story on.

In sum, The Sixth Decade is wondrous. It's chock-full of AEC's trademark musicality, variety, stewardship, and indomitable creative spirit.

Scaled up to a 18-piece orchestra, AEC sounds as powerful, sonically, and as varied, stylistically, as at any point in those eventful decades as it presents material that shows how its distinctive blend of stately, often fraught melody and mercurial improvisation coheres with barrages of African percussion, soaring operatic vocal, whirring strings and passages of rabble rousing spoken word.

Incorporating the diaspora’s farthest reaches, the Art Ensemble is steadily (re)fueled by the breadth of its vision — a cultural survey with no stone left unturned.