Throughout his career, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell (b. 1940, Chicago) has been a leading voice in the fields of contemporary composition and improvised music. He is a founding member of Chicago's Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and of its flagship group, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, has composed for small combos, orchestras, and string ensembles, and has conveyed his lifetime of knowledge to a new generation of musicians as an educator at Mills College in Oakland.

Nameless Sound hosts Mitchell for a week-long residency during which he will lead a series of workshops and rehearsals, and participate in three public events.

For this special duo concert, co-presented with the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Mitchell reconnects with Alvin Fielder, the man behind the drum kit on his earliest sessions, including the 1967 landmark, Sound. The house drummer at the Eldorado Ballroom in the 1950s while he attended school at Texas Southern University, Fielder went on to perform with the likes of Sun Ra, Kidd Jordan, Dennis Gonzalez and other key figures of the jazz avant-garde.

Roscoe Mitchell is this year's recipient of Nameless Sound's Resounding Vision Award, presented to musicians whose efforts resonate beyond the concert stage.