Art Ensemble of Chicago - People In Sorrow LP

Label: Play Loud

Release Date: May 8th, 2026

Originally released by EMI’s Pathé Marconi imprint in 1969, People In Sorrow - a 40-minute work by the four-piece lineup of Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, and Malachi Favors is finally back in print.

People In Sorrow can be viewed as the culminating statement in the Art Ensemble’s inventive and revolutionary approach to collective improvisation, counterposing clamorous free-blowing intensity with expanses of hushed conversation played across the group’s immense arsenal of “little instruments.”

Fully licensed from Warner Music, and augmented with new liner notes by veteran music journalist Chris Morris, this release marks the long-awaited return of the record that Chicago-based writer, curator, and label operator John Corbett calls “one of the most luminous albums of creative music ever made.”