- Muhal Richard Abrams
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Muhal Richard Abrams 
Muhal Richard Abrams, Moers Festival 2009Background information Born September 19, 1930 Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA Genres Free jazz, Post Bop Occupations Musician
Bandleader
ComposerInstruments Piano
Clarinet
CelloYears active 1950s–present Labels Delmark
Black Saint
Novus Records
New World
Pi RecordingsMuhal Richard Abrams (born September 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois)[1] is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.[2]
Contents
Biography
Muhal Richard Abrams, Moers Festival 2009
Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago. By 1946, he decided to enroll in music classes at Roosevelt University. “I didn’t get too much out of that, because it wasn’t what I was hearing in the street,” he says. “I decided to study on my own. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had a natural ability to study and analyze things. I used that ability, not even knowing what it was (it was just a feeling) and started to read books." The books of Joseph Schillinger were very influential in Abrams' development. "From there, I acquired a small spinet piano and started to teach myself how to play the instrument and read the notes - or, first of all, what key the music was in. It took time and a lot of sweat. But I analyzed it and before long I was playing with the musicians on the scene. I listened to Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell and many others and concentrated on Duke and Fletcher Henderson for composition. Later I got scores and studied more extensive things that take place in classical composition and started to practice classical pieces on the piano, as I do now.”[3]
Abrams' first gigs were playing the blues, R&B, and hard bop circuit in Chicago and working as a sideman with everyone from Dexter Gordon and Max Roach to Ruth Brown and Woody Shaw. In 1950 he began writing arrangements for the King Fleming Band, and in 1955 played in the hard-bop band Modern Jazz Two + Three, with tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris.[4] After this group folded he kept a low profile until he organized the Experimental Band in 1962, a contrast to his earlier hard bop venture in its use of free jazz concepts. This band, with its fluctuating lineup, evolved into the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), emerging in May 1965 with Abrams as its president. Rather than playing in smoky night clubs, AACM members often rented out theatres and lofts where they could perform for attentive and open-minded audiences. The album Levels and Degrees of Light (1967) was the landmark first recording under Abrams' leadership. On this set, Abrams is joined by the saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Maurice McIntyre, vibraphonist Gordon Emmanuel, violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassist Leonard Jones and vocalist Penelope Taylor.
Abrams also played with saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dexter Gordon, and other more bop-oriented musicians during this era.
Abrams moved to New York permanently in 1975 where he was a factor in the local Loft Jazz scene. In 1983, he established the New York chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.
In the 1970s, Abrams has composed for symphony orchestras, string quartets, solo piano, voice, and big bands in addition to making a series of larger ensemble recordings that include harp and accordion.[5] He is a widely influential artist, having played sides for many musicians early in his career, releasing important recordings as a leader, and writing classical works such as his "String Quartet #2" which was performed by the Kronos Quartet, on November 22, 1985, at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City.[6] He has recorded extensively under his own name (frequently on the Black Saint label) and as a sideman on others' records. Notably regarding the latter he has recorded with Anthony Braxton Duets 1976 on Arista Records, Marion Brown and Chico Freeman.
He has recorded and toured the United States, Canada and Europe with his orchestra, sextet, quartet, duo and as a solo pianist. His musical affiliations is a "who's who" of the jazz world, including Max Roach, Dexter Gordon, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Art Farmer, Sonny Stitt, Anthony Braxton, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Eddie Harris and many others. In 1990 Abrams won the Jazzpar Prize an annual Danish prize within jazz. In 1997 he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. In May 2009 the National Endowment for the Arts announced that Abrams would be one of the recipients of the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters Award.[7] In June 2010, Muhal Richard Abrams was be honored the Lifetime Achievement Award by New York City's premier jazz festival, known as the Vision Festival[8][9]
Discography
As leader
Year Title Label 1967 Levels and Degrees of Light Delmark 1969 Young at Heart/Wise in Time Delmark 1975 Things to Come from Those Now Gone Delmark 1975 Afrisong India Navigation/Whynot Records 1976 Sightsong Black Saint 1977 1-OQA+19 Black Saint 1978 Lifea Blinec Novus 1978 Spiral Live at Montreux 1978 Novus 1979 Spihumonesty Black Saint 1980 Mama and Daddy Black Saint 1981 Duet with Amina Claudine Myers Black Saint 1982 Blues Forever Black Saint 1983 Rejoicing with the Light Black Saint 1985 View from Within Black Saint 1986 Roots of Blue with Cecil McBee RPR 1987 Colors in Thirty-Third Black Saint 1989 The Hearinga Suite Black Saint 1991 Blu Blu Blu Black Saint 1993 Family Talk Black Saint 1995 Think All, Focus One Black Sain 1997 Song for All Black Saint 1996 One Line, Two Views New World 1997 The Open Air Meeting (Live) with Marty Ehrlich New World 2001 The Visibility of Thought Mutable Music 2005 Streaming with George Lewis Pi 2007 Vision Towards Essence (Live) Pi 2010 Spectrum with Roscoe Mitchell Mutable Music As sideman
With Walter Perkins MJT+3
- Daddy-O Presents MJT+3 (1957)
With Roscoe Mitchell
- Nonaah (1967)
- Roscoe Mitchell Quartet (1975)
- Duets and Solos (1990)
With Joseph Jarman
- As If It Were the Seasons (1968)
With Anthony Braxton
- Three Compositions of New Jazz (1968)
- Duets 1976 (1976)
- Quintet (Basel) 1977 (2001)
With Creative Construction Company
- Creative Construction Company (Muse Records, 1970)
- CCC, Vol. 2 (Muse, 1971)
- Muhal (1977)
With Kenny Dorham
- Kenny Dorham Sextet (1970)
With Eddie Harris
- Instant Death (1972)
- Eddie Harris Sings the Blues (1972)
- Excursions (1973)
- Fanfare for the Warriors (1974)
- Kabalaba (1978)
With Marion Brown
- Sweet Earth Flying (1974)
- Vista (1975)
With Robin Kenyatta
- Beggars and Stealers (1977)
With Chico Freeman
- Morning Prayer (1976)
- Chico (1977)
- Freeman & Freeman (1981)
With Woody Shaw
- The Iron Men (1977)
With Leroy Jenkins
- Lifelong Ambitions (Black Saint, 1977)
With George Lewis
- Shadowgraph 5 (Sextet) (1977)
With Barry Altschul
- You Can't Name Your Own Tune (1977)
With Clifford Jordan
- Inward Fire (1978)
With Marty Ehrlich
- Emergency Peace (1990)
With Hamiet Bluiett
- Saying Something for All (1998)
References
- ^ Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness, page 47, (1995) - ISBN 978-1-56159-176-3
- ^ Lyons, Leonard. The Great Jazz Pianists: Speaking of Their Lives and Music, Da Capo Press, page 54, (1989) - ISBN 978-0-306-80343-7
- ^ All About Jazz: Muhal Richard Abrams
- ^ Panken, T. Muhal Richard Abrams: The Advancement of Creative Music, All About Jazz May 25, 2007
- ^ Schoenberg, Loren. The Npr Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz, Perigee, page 85, (2002) - ISBN 978-0-399-52794-4
- ^ Kronos Quartet
- ^ National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters
- ^ [1]
- ^ Ben Ratliff, "New York Times," "Honoring Heroes of Jazz, With Words, Silence and Improvisation," June 26, 2010, C7
External links
Categories:- 1930 births
- Living people
- American jazz composers
- American jazz pianists
- People from Chicago, Illinois
- Musicians from Illinois
- Free jazz pianists
- Free jazz composers
- Pi Recordings artists
- Novus Records artists
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