Jazz Articles about Horace Tapscott

About Horace Tapscott

Radio & Podcasts

Bill Dixon, Fay Victor, Szilárd Mezei Octet, Horace Tapscott and More

by Jon Greenbaum
June 7, 2026

In this archived radio transmission we get down with a variety of tasty post bop, free improvisation, experimental sound and through composed beauties. You're right! Here it is corrected:Playlist Luis Gasca “Street Dude" from For Those Who Chant (Blue Thumb Records) 00:00:00 Marty Ehrlich “The Folksinger" from Cartographies of Flight (Corbett vs. Dempsey) 00:11:44 Bill Dixon Orchestra"Metamorphosis 1962-1966" from Intents And Purposes (RCA Victor) 00:17:31 Fieldwork “Fantome" from Thereupon (Pi Recordings) 00:31:27 The Sephardics “Migrant" from Sephardic Dialogues ...

Radio & Podcasts

Horace Tapscott, Smiley Winters, and Blue Stars of France

by Jerome Wilson
June 11, 2025

This is a vintage episode first heard on January 19, 2021. The cast for this show includes Horace Tapscott, Smiley Winters. Marc Ribot, Marion Brown, and the Blue Stars of France. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextet “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Eddie Hazell “Watch What Happens" from One For My Baby (Eden) 1:14 Blue Stars of France “Lullaby of Birdland" from Lullaby of ...

Album Review

Horace Tapscott: 60 Years

by Danen Jobe
July 16, 2023

In the world of the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, it is impossible to separate community and music. The band is all from the South Central LA community, and they are playing for the community. They are composing songs about family, about people they see, about overcoming immense adversity. There is a distinct sound to this band, which first and foremost is the sound of its founder and leader, Horace Tapscott. It is deep, often accompanied by two or three ...

Album Review

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years

by Chris May
June 2, 2023

The 2 x LP 60 Years celebrates the history of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (PAPA), which was founded by the pianist, composer and community activist Horace Tapscott in South Central Los Angeles in 1961, and directed by him until he passed in 1999. The release, albeit of archive material, also reminds us that the Arkestra remains active in 2023, now under the direction of drummer Mekala Session, son of the Arkestra's veteran alto saxophonist Michael Session. There are six ...

Album Review

Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: Live at I.U.C.C. 11/26/1978

Read "Live at I.U.C.C. 11/26/1978" reviewed by Danen Jobe

by Danen Jobe
April 20, 2023

In November of 1978, Horace Tapscott had some advantages that any other iconoclastic, idealistic, idiosyncratic jazz bandleader would greatly desire. For one, he was approached by a socially minded professional gambler named Tom Albach about starting a label (Nimbus West) devoted to Tapscott's music, allowing complete creative control, never expecting to make a dime of profit, and providing living money to keep the band going. Another was a steady gig in the only area in the nation that Tapscott truly ...

Radio & Podcasts

A World of Piano

by Jerome Wilson
September 14, 2022

This is two hours of piano played by icons including Thelonious Monk and Cecil Taylor, overlooked figures Hasaan Ibn Ali and Horace Tapscott, and current stars Brad Mehldau and Fred Hersch. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Juliet Kurtzman/Pete Malinverni “Davenport Blues" from Candlelight: Love in the Time of Cholera (Saranac) 1:05 The Thelonious Monk Orchestra “Crepuscule With Nellie" ...

Album Review

Horace Tapscott Quintet: Legacies for Our Grandchildren: Live in Hollywood 1995

Read "Legacies for Our Grandchildren: Live in Hollywood 1995" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
July 19, 2022

Since its founding in 2011, the French record label Dark Tree has been issuing a “Roots Series" documenting previously unreleased performances of the Los Angeles jazz avant-garde from the 1970s through the '90s. Among the best of those releases have been several from Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra led by pianist/composer/conductor Horace Tapscott. Legacies for Our Grandchildren: Live in Hollywood 1995 is one of only two quintet albums led by the pianist. A community activist in South Central LA, Tapscott often ...