Jazz Articles about Muhal Richard Abrams

The Black Saint And Soul Note Labels

by Jerome Wilson
June 3, 2022

Since 1975, the Black Saint and Soul Note record labels have been a major force in documenting the growth of American avant-garde jazz. This program samples two hours of music from their diverse catalog. It includes work from artists who had long associations with the labels such as Muhal Richard Abrams and David Murray as well as those who just had a few releases there such as Odean Pope and Phillip Johnston. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't ...

Muhal Richard Abrams / Roscoe Mitchell: Spectrum

by Kurt Gottschalk
June 9, 2010

Muhal Richard Abrams and Roscoe Mitchell are arguably the two figures most central to the birth and rearing of the seminal '60s collective the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The organization was borne out of Abrams' Experimental Band and the first standing group to emerge from it was the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble (later rechristened the Art Ensemble of Chicago). It seems a bit strange, then, that their careers have run such separate, while nearly parallel, paths. ...

Muhal Richard Abrams: Vision Towards Essence

by Martin Longley
May 4, 2008

This is a live solo piano set from 1998's Guelph Jazz Festival, in Canada. Chicagoan-cum-New York pianist Muhal Richard Abrams performs the album's title piece, which is around an hour long and is divided into three parts. Ultimately, there are only the tiniest breaks in this improvisation and these demarcations only exist for listening convenience. Once Abrams begins, he's off on a journey that's so organized that it appears to possess the discipline of a premeditated composition. He views this ...

Muhal Richard Abrams: The Advancement of Creative Music

by AAJ Staff
May 25, 2007

By Ted Panken At a certain point in the mid-1960s--the exact date escapes him--pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams, a lifelong resident of the South Side of Chicago, visited New York for the first time on a gig with saxophonist Eddie Harris at Harlem's Club Barron. “New York suited my energy, Abrams recalled. “Of course. But I was already in that sort of energy. I had no doubt that I could be in New York. No doubt at all. ...

Muhal Richard Abrams / George Lewis / Roscoe Mitchell: Streaming

by Mark Corroto
November 21, 2006

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson from the 1997 film As Good As It Gets, this recording “...makes me want to be a better listener. Impeccably recorded, Streaming brings together (once again) three AACM giants for an hour of open (their word) improvisation.

Like Stephen Hawkins has done with casual conversation, artists Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, and Roscoe Mitchell have long since abandoned music--for sound. That is not to say that for these artists, or the act of creating ...

Muhal Richard Abrams: Things To Come From Those Now Gone

by Derek Taylor
September 1, 2000

Muhal Richard Abrams is the grand patriarch of the AACM. He set-up shop on the ground floor as a co-founder of the Association in 1965 and has since served as one of the guiding forces behind its direction and longevity. Things To Come From Those Now Gone was Abrams third album for Delmark. It’s the last to be reissued by the label and remains one of Abrams most eclectic offerings. As if in deference to his position as educator the ...