Muhal Richard Abrams

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Muhal Richard Abrams
Born September 19, 1930 (1930-09-19) (age 79)
Origin Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genres Free jazz, Post Bop
Occupations Musician
Bandleader
Composer
Instruments Piano
Clarinet
Cello
Years active 1950s – Present
Labels Delmark
Black Saint
Novus Records
New World
Pi Recordings

Muhal Richard Abrams, Moers Festival 2009
Muhal Richard Abrams, Moers Festival 2009

Muhal Richard Abrams, Moers Festival 2009
Muhal Richard Abrams, Moers Festival 2009

Muhal 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

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

YearTitleLabel
1967Levels and Degrees of LightDelmark
1969Young at Heart/Wise in TimeDelmark
1975Things to Come from Those Now GoneDelmark
1975AfrisongTrio/Whynot
1976SightsongBlack Saint
19771-OQA 19Black Saint
1978Lifea BlinecNovus
1978Spiral Live at Montreux 1978Novus
1979SpihumonestyBlack Saint
1980Mama and DaddyBlack Saint
1981Duet with Amina Claudine MyersBlack Saint
1982Blues ForeverBlack Saint
1983Rejoicing with the LightBlack Saint
1985View from WithinBlack Saint
1986Roots of Blue with Cecil McBeeRPR
1987Colors in Thirty-ThirdBlack Saint
1989The Hearinga SuiteBlack Saint
1991Blu Blu BluBlack Saint
1993Family TalkBlack Saint
1995Think All, Focus OneBlack Saint
1997Song for AllBlack Saint
1996One Line, Two ViewsNew World
1997The Open Air Meeting (Live) with Marty EhrlichNew World
2001The Visibility of ThoughtMutable Music
2005Streaming with George LewisPi
2007Vision Towards Essence (Live)Pi
2010Spectrum with Roscoe MitchellMutable Music

As sideman

With Walter Perkins MJT+3
  • Daddy-O Presents MJT+3 (1957)
With Roscoe Mitchell With Joseph Jarman With Anthony Braxton 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)
With Art Ensemble of Chicago 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
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

  1. ^ Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Guinness, page 47, (1995) - ISBN 978-1-56159-176-3
  2. ^ Lyons, Leonard. The Great Jazz Pianists: Speaking of Their Lives and Music, Da Capo Press, page 54, (1989) - ISBN 978-0-306-80343-7
  3. ^ All About Jazz: Muhal Richard Abrams
  4. ^ Panken, T. Muhal Richard Abrams: The Advancement of Creative Music], All About Jazz May 25, 2007
  5. ^ Schoenberg, Loren. The Npr Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz, Perigee, page 85, (2002) - ISBN 978-0-399-52794-4
  6. ^ Kronos Quartet
  7. ^ National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ Ben Ratliff, "New York Times," "Honoring Heroes of Jazz, With Words, Silence and Improvisation," June 26, 2010, C7

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