- Malachi Favors
-
Malachi Favors (August 22, 1927 in Lexington, Mississippi – January 30, 2004 in Chicago) was a noted American jazz bassist best known for his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Contents
Biography
He primarily played the double bass, but also played the electric bass guitar, banjo, zither, gong, and other instruments. He began playing double bass at age fifteen and began performing professionally upon graduating high school. Early performances included work with Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Hubbard. By 1965, he was a founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and a member of Muhal Richard Abrams' Experimental Band.[1]
At some point he added the word "Maghostut" to his name and because of this he is commonly listed as "Malachi Favors Maghostut." Musically he is most associated with bebop, hard bop, and particularly free jazz.[2]
Favors was a protégé of Chicago bassist Wilbur Ware. His first known recording was a 1953 session with tenor saxophonist Paul Bascomb. He made an LP with Chicago pianist Andrew Hill (1957). He began working with Roscoe Mitchell in 1966; this group eventually became the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Favors also worked outside the group, with artists including Sunny Murrary, Archie Shepp, and Dewey Redman.[3]
Prominent records include Natural and the Spiritual (solo bass, 1977) and Sightsong (duets with Muhal Richard Abrams, 1975). In 1994 he played with Roman Bunka (Oud) at Berlin Jazz Fest and recorded the German Critics Poll Winner album Color me Cairo.
Favors died of pancreatic cancer in 2004. Since then, there have been several recorded tributes by fellow musicians (and especially Chicagoans), including Big M, A Tribute to Malachi by Kahil El'Zabar and the "Malachi Favors Suite" for unaccompanied double bass, composed and recorded by fellow Chicago bassist Karl E. H. Seigfried.
Discography
with Art Ensemble of Chicago
Title Year Label Sound - Roscoe Mitchell Sextet 1966 Delmark Old/Quartet - Roscoe Mitchell 1967 Nessa Numbers 1 & 2 - Lester Bowie 1967 Nessa Congliptious - Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble 1968 Nessa A Jackson in Your House 1969 Actuel Tutankhamun 1969 Freedom The Spiritual 1969 Freedom People in Sorrow 1969 Pathé-Marconi Message to Our Folks 1969 Actuel Reese and the Smooth Ones 1969 Actuel Eda Wobu 1969 JMY Certain Blacks 1970 America Go Home 1970 Galloway Chi-Congo 1970 Paula Les Stances a Sophie 1970 Pathé-Marconi Live in Paris 1970 Freedom Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass 1970 America Phase One 1971 America Live at Mandell Hall 1972 Delmark Bap-Tizum 1972 Atlantic Fanfare for the Warriors 1973 Atlantic Kabalaba 1974 AECO Nice Guys 1978 ECM Live in Berlin 1979 West Wind Full Force 1980 ECM Urban Bushmen 1980 ECM Among the People 1980 Praxis The Complete Live in Japan 1984 DIW The Third Decade 1984 ECM Naked 1986 DIW Ancient to the Future 1987 DIW The Alternate Express 1989 DIW Art Ensemble of Soweto 1990 DIW America - South Africa 1990 DIW Thelonious Sphere Monk with Cecil Taylor 1990 DIW Dreaming of the Masters Suite 1990 DIW Live at the 6th Tokyo Music Joy with Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy 1991 DIW Fundamental Destiny with Don Pullen 1991 AECO Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition 1993 AECO Coming Home Jamaica 1996 Atlantic Urban Magic 1997 AECO Tribute to Lester 2001 ECM Reunion 2003 Around Jazz The Meeting 2003 Pi Sirius Calling 2004 Pi With Roman Bunka
- Color Me Cairo (Enja, 1995)
With Andrew Hill
- So In Love (Warwick, 1960)
With Roscoe Mitchell
- The Flow of Things (Black Saint, 1986)
With Dewey Redman
- Tarik (BYG Actuel, 1969)
References
External links
Categories:- American jazz double-bassists
- American jazz bass guitarists
- Art Ensemble of Chicago members
- 1927 births
- 2004 deaths
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.