Abrams, Muhal Richard

SoundDance

Label: Pi Recordings Country: USA

"SoundDance celebrates the 80th birthday of the hugely influential pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. Perhaps best known as the founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) -- the organization from which sprung such giants of contemporary music as Anthony Braxton, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Henry Threadgill -- Abram was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and to the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 2010 for his 50 year of contribution to jazz.

The double CD captures Abrams live in two fully-improvised duo performances. The first: "Focus, ThruTime...Time ->" features tenor saxophone titan Fred Anderson. Despite a shared history in Chicago going back almost 60 years, this is the first release that features the two octogenarians performing together. It is sadly also the final release from Anderson, a stalwart on the Chicago scene not only as a musician, but also as the proprietor of the Velvet Lounge, the epicenter of that city's flourishing avant-garde jazz scene. He also acted as mentor to two generations of forward-looking musicians in Chicago, including Ken Vandermark, Mike Reed, Nicole Mitchell, Corey Wilkes and countless others. The second CD, "SoundDance," features Abrams with the laptop, electronics and trombone of George Lewis, a MacArthur "Genius" Grant recipient who is influential in his pioneering use of computer electronics in jazz. Each work is fully improvised and unfettered by traditional musical structure, representing the height of spontaneous artistic invention."-Pi Recordings

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