Muhal Richard Abrams

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
Plus Equal Minus Balance 00:00 Tools
Encore 12:46 Tools
The Harmonic Veil 06:23 Tools
Scaledance 05:55 Tools
Duet For Contrabass And Piano 06:00 Tools
Duet For Violin And Piano 10:01 Tools
Crossbeams 07:34 Tools
Balu 07:47 Tools
Before And After 08:37 Tools
Afrisong 05:09 Tools
Mama and Daddy 07:31 Tools
Levels and Degrees of Light 10:34 Tools
Fafca 08:09 Tools
The Infinitive Flow 06:10 Tools
The Junction 08:33 Tools
The Bird Song 22:54 Tools
Blu Blu Blu 00:00 Tools
Bloodline 00:00 Tools
Cycles Five 00:00 Tools
The Visibility Of Thought 05:14 Tools
Peace On You 07:41 Tools
Hymn To the East 04:39 Tools
Piano Duet #1 10:46 Tools
Piano Imporvisation 29:22 Tools
Arhythm Songy 08:55 Tools
One For The Whistler 00:00 Tools
My Thoughts Are My Future - Now And Forever 09:42 Tools
Malic 08:10 Tools
Charlie In the Parker 09:05 Tools
Septone 00:00 Tools
Roots 04:02 Tools
Blues For M. 03:49 Tools
Think All, Focus One 05:36 Tools
Petsrof 00:00 Tools
Stretch Time 00:00 Tools
Part 1 21:01 Tools
The New People 10:13 Tools
Part 2 18:19 Tools
Balladi 09:08 Tools
Ancient And Future Reflections 06:50 Tools
Part 3 20:12 Tools
OQA 07:02 Tools
Blues Forever 09:04 Tools
Duet For One World 04:56 Tools
Textures 95 07:10 Tools
RITOB 07:54 Tools
March Of The Transients 00:00 Tools
Du King (Dedicated To Duke Ellington) 02:02 Tools
Chambea 07:32 Tools
Baritone Voice And String Quartet 10:37 Tools
Panorama 06:01 Tools
The Prism 3 09:18 Tools
Hearinga 05:11 Tools
Quartet To Quartet 07:08 Tools
Cluster For Many Worlds 05:05 Tools
11 Over 4 12:02 Tools
Ballad For New Souls 05:05 Tools
Drumman Cyrille 00:00 Tools
Conversations With The Three Of Me 05:45 Tools
Seesall 05:28 Tools
Rejoicing with the Light 08:49 Tools
Tribute To Julius Hemphill And Don Pullen 04:07 Tools
Oldfotalk 06:43 Tools
Wise in time 21:52 Tools
Finditnow 06:27 Tools
Hydepth 13:35 Tools
One Line, Two Views 11:56 Tools
Bermix 06:56 Tools
Spiral to Clarity 04:38 Tools
Young At Heart 29:24 Tools
Way Way Way Down Yonder 05:33 Tools
W.W. [dedicated To Wilbur Ware] 05:01 Tools
Ensemble Song 18:37 Tools
Blessed Be the Heavens at 12 09:40 Tools
J. G. [dedicated To Johnny Griffin] 05:39 Tools
Sightsong/two Over One 12:40 Tools
Things To Come From Those Now Gone 04:09 Tools
Marching With Honor 10:56 Tools
In Retrospect 00:00 Tools
Triverse 08:25 Tools
Ballad For Old Souls 06:42 Tools
Munktmunk 00:00 Tools
1 And 4 Plus 2 And 7 11:40 Tools
How Are You? 00:00 Tools
Inneroutersight 06:57 Tools
Meditation 1 04:35 Tools
Piano-Cello Song 00:00 Tools
Soprano Song 00:00 Tools
Miss Richards 00:00 Tools
The Heart Is Love And 'I Am' 00:00 Tools
Afri Song 05:06 Tools
Spihumonesty 03:04 Tools
Introspection 00:00 Tools
Unichange 06:38 Tools
Unitry [Dedicated to the AACM] 00:00 Tools
Song For All 06:37 Tools
Dabadubada 08:54 Tools
Blue Monk 07:32 Tools
Drumbutu 17:19 Tools
Crepuscule With Nellie 03:39 Tools
Imagine 04:02 Tools
Blues To You 04:56 Tools
Aura of Thought- Things 04:36 Tools
Heart Is Love and "I Am" 10:29 Tools
Miss Richarda 05:52 Tools
I mean You 08:25 Tools
Announcement by Verna Gillis 00:41 Tools
King (dedicated To Duke Ellington) 02:03 Tools
Over The Same Over 19:59 Tools
GMBR 13:49 Tools
Illuso 15:14 Tools
Ask Me Now 08:03 Tools
Hearings 05:11 Tools
Transparency of Lobo Lubu 10:00 Tools
Four In One 10:17 Tools
Gallop's Gallop 03:42 Tools
Linetime 09:10 Tools
Focus, ThruTime…Time→ Part 3 05:59 Tools
Colors in Thiry-Third 00:00 Tools
Introduction by Nat Hentoff 06:39 Tools
Miss Amina 07:45 Tools
Focus, ThruTime…Time→ Part 1 29:22 Tools
Blu Blu Blu (Dedicated to McKinley Morganfield (a/k/a Muddy Waters)) 09:17 Tools
Poetry by Amiri Baraka 01:20 Tools
Piano Improvisation 29:22 Tools
W.W. (Dedicated to Wilbur Ware) 05:00 Tools
SoundDance Part 2 11:17 Tools
Swang Rag Swang 04:34 Tools
Sound Image Of the Past, Present and Future 05:19 Tools
Colors in Thirty-Third 06:38 Tools
Lifea Blinec 00:00 Tools
Down the Street from the Gene Ammons Public School 05:07 Tools
Duo 2 05:01 Tools
Duo 1 08:20 Tools
Harmonic Veil 06:23 Tools
Steamin' up the Road 07:14 Tools
SoundDance Part 3 05:20 Tools
Laja 06:38 Tools
Focus, ThruTime…Time→ Part 2 05:19 Tools
Dance From The East 06:02 Tools
One For Peggy 04:12 Tools
View From Within 07:56 Tools
Dizbirdmonkbudmax (A Tribute) 15:45 Tools
Positrain 03:54 Tools
Inner Lights 03:59 Tools
Family Talk 13:45 Tools
Junction 04:12 Tools
SoundDance Part 1 10:42 Tools
Sightsong 06:22 Tools
Scrape 10:02 Tools
Dark Sestina 08:31 Tools
DizBirdMonkBudMax 15:48 Tools
Down at Peppers 12:34 Tools
Steamin'up The Road 07:14 Tools
Streaming 15:45 Tools
Personal Conversations 07:49 Tools
Bound 09:42 Tools
Dramaturns 09:42 Tools
Mergertone 17:15 Tools
Journey Home as Seen Through The Fairness of Life 06:52 Tools
Two Over One 05:32 Tools
Familytalk 13:47 Tools
Ja Do Thu (Dedicated to Jarman, Douglas & Thurman) 06:52 Tools
Focus, ThruTime…Time→ Part 4 15:16 Tools
My Thoughts Are My Future -- Now and Forever 09:42 Tools
Ballad 05:07 Tools
Bright Canto 12:05 Tools
Soundhear 13:47 Tools
The Price of The Ticket 13:54 Tools
SoundDance Part 4 17:55 Tools
Blues for M 03:49 Tools
Romu 08:45 Tools
Bud P. (Dedicated To Bud Powell) 05:21 Tools
Blessed Be The Heavens at 12 (9-7-5-3-1) 12:40 Tools
Tribute to Julius Hemphill & Don Pullen 07:49 Tools
Sightsong / Two Over One 12:40 Tools
Unity 05:17 Tools
Prism 3 07:49 Tools
How Are You 04:41 Tools
J.G. (Dedicated to Jonny Griffin) 05:39 Tools
Focus One Think All 10:40 Tools
Track #2 05:17 Tools
Young At Hart 08:45 Tools
Track #1 06:52 Tools
Present And Future /Sound Image Of The Past 08:45 Tools
Roots of Blue 08:10 Tools
Bud P 07:53 Tools
My Thoughts are My Future Now and Forever 09:42 Tools
Ja Do Thu 08:18 Tools
Focus Thrutime Time Part 3 05:59 Tools
Sound Dance Part 3 05:21 Tools
Bloodline (Dedicated to Fletcher Henderson-Don Redman-Benny Carter) 10:40 Tools
Track #3 05:21 Tools
The Heart Is Love And I Am 10:40 Tools
Focus Thrutime Time Part 1 08:10 Tools
Untitled 08:10 Tools
Focus, ThruTimeTime Part 3 08:10 Tools
Voice Song 08:10 Tools
Focus Thrutime Time Part 2 08:45 Tools
Etudes Op. 1, No. 1 08:45 Tools
My Thoughts Are My Future, Now And Forever 08:45 Tools
String Song 08:45 Tools
Baritone Voice and String Quartett 10:40 Tools
Part 4 10:40 Tools
Mama And Daddy (album) 10:40 Tools
Sound Dance Part 2 10:40 Tools
1 And 4 Plus 2 And 7 / March of the Transients 10:40 Tools
Sound Dance Part 1 10:43 Tools
Muhal Richard Abrams 01:42 Tools
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Muhal Richard Abrams (Chicago, Illinois, September 19, 1930 – October 29, 2017) was an American free jazz pianist, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist and educator. Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago. By 1946, he enrolled in music classes at Roosevelt University, but "I didn't get too much out of that, because it wasn't what I was hearing in the street". He then decided to study independently: "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. In Abrams' words: 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 Ellington 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. 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. 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 theaters 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 was joined by the saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Maurice McIntyre, vibraphonist Gordon Emmanuel, violinist Leroy Jenkins, bassists Leonard Jones and Charles Clark, and vocalist Penelope Taylor. Abrams also played with saxophonists Eddie Harris, Gordon, and other more bop-oriented musicians during this era. Abrams moved to New York permanently in 1977 where he was involved 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 composed for symphony orchestras, string quartets, solo piano, voice, and big bands in addition to making a series of larger ensemble recordings that included harp and accordion. 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 No. 2", which was performed by the Kronos Quartet, on November 22, 1985, at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. 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 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 Roach, Gordon, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Art Farmer, Sonny Stitt, Braxton, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Harris and many others. In 1990 Abrams won the Jazzpar Prize, an annual Danish prize within jazz. Abrams received a 1997 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. In June 2010, Abrams was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by New York City's premier jazz festival, known as the Vision Festival. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.