Amina Claudine Myers | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | March 21, 1942 Blackwell, Arkansas, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, Gospel |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, arranger |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, piano, organ |
| Years active | 1969–present |
Amina Claudine Myers (born March 21, 1942) is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and arranger. [1]
Born in Blackwell, Arkansas, [2] "Myers was brought up largely by her great-aunt, a schoolteacher, and her great-uncle, a carpenter by trade who played the clarinet, piano, and flute". [2] She started taking piano lessons around the age of four, including at Sacred Hearts Catholic School, and when she was seven, her family moved to Roosevelt, a Black community outside of Dallas, Texas. Myers took piano and violin lessons, but eventually, partly for financial reasons, settled on the piano, taking weekly lessons of fifteen minutes each. [3] She began to learn some European classical music at high school, but this was interrupted when she and the family moved back to Blackwell. [4]
Myers majored in music education at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. [4] In her second year, she was invited to play at The Safari Room in Memphis, Tennessee. [4] This engagement, however, was very brief, as her musical repertoire was too limited. [4] After graduation, she moved in 1963 to Chicago, where she taught music at an elementary school. [5] She also attended classes at Roosevelt University and worked with musicians such as Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. [6] She was one of the performers at the AACM's second concert. [5] In the late 1960s, Myers added "Amina" to her name. [7]
In 1976 Myers relocated to New York City, [8] where she intensified her compositional work and expanded it into the realm of Off-Broadway productions. She also continued performing and recording as a pianist and organist. Around 1978 she began touring in Europe with the Lester Bowie Quintet and his New York Organ Ensemble. [8]
With Muhal Richard Abrams
With the Art Ensemble of Chicago
With Arthur Blythe
With Lester Bowie
With Frank Lowe
With Maurice McIntyre
With Greg Osby
With Jim Pepper
With Third Rail (James Blood Ulmer & Bill Laswell)
With Henry Threadgill
With James Blood Ulmer
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1965 in Chicago by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. The AACM is devoted "to nurturing, performing, and recording serious, original music," according to its charter. It supports and encourages jazz performers, composers and educators. Although founded in the jazz tradition, the group's outreach and influence has, according to Larry Blumenfeld, "touched nearly all corners of modern music."
Lester Bowie was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
James "Blood" Ulmer is an American jazz, free funk and blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been called "raggedly soulful".
Arthur Murray Blythe was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer. He was described by critic Chris Kelsey as displaying "one of the most easily recognizable alto sax sounds in jazz, big and round, with a fast, wide vibrato and an aggressive, precise manner of phrasing" and furthermore as straddling the avant garde and traditionalist jazz, often with bands featuring unusual instrumentation.
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone, but he also performs on soprano and flute. During the 1960s, Lake worked with the Black Artists Group in St. Louis. In 1977, he founded the World Saxophone Quartet with David Murray, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiet Bluiett. Lake worked in the group Trio 3 with Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille. Lake has appeared on more than 80 albums as a bandleader, co-leader, and side musician. He is the father of drummer Gene Lake. Lake has been a resident of Montclair, New Jersey.
James Carter is an American jazz musician widely recognized for his technical virtuosity on saxophones and a variety of woodwinds. He is the cousin of noted jazz violinist Regina Carter.
Fred Hopkins was an American double bassist who played a major role in the development of the avant-garde jazz movement. He was best known for his association with the trio Air with Henry Threadgill and Steve McCall, and for his numerous performances and extensive recordings with major jazz musicians such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Arthur Blythe, Oliver Lake, and David Murray. He was a member of the AACM, and a frequent participant in the loft jazz scene of the 1970s. He also co-led a number of albums with the composer and cellist Diedre Murray. Gary Giddins wrote that Hopkins' playing "fused audacious power with mercuric reflexes." Howard Reich, writing in the Chicago Tribune, stated that "many connoisseurs considered [Hopkins] the most accomplished jazz bassist of his generation" and praised him for "the extraordinarily fluid technique, sumptuous tone and innovative methods he brought to his instrument."
Douglas R. Ewart is a Jamaican multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder. He plays sopranino and alto saxophones, clarinets, bassoon, flute, bamboo flutes, and didgeridoo; as well as Rastafarian hand drums.
Eddie Allen is an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist from Milwaukee.
Frank Lowe was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer.
Loft jazz was a cultural phenomenon that occurred in New York City during the mid-1970s. Gary Giddins described it as follows: "[A] new coterie of avant-garde musicians took much of the jazz world by surprise... [T]hey interpreted the idea of freedom as the capacity to choose between all the realms of jazz, mixing and matching them not only with each other, but with old and new pop, R&B and rock, classical music and world music... [S]eemingly overnight new venues - in many instances, apartments or lofts - opened shop to present their wares." According to Michael Heller, "lofts were not an organization, nor a movement, nor an ideology, nor a genre, nor a neighborhood, nor a lineage of individuals. They were, instead, a meeting point, a locus for interaction." Heller stated that "loft practices came to be defined by a number of key characteristics, including (1) low admission charges or suggested donations, (2) casual atmospheres that blurred the distinction between performer and audience, (3) ownership / administration by musicians, and (4) mixed-use spaces that combined both private living areas and public presentation space." Regarding the music played in these venues, Michael J. Agovino wrote: "This was community music. Part of the point was that, free of the strictures of clubs, the music could be anything, go anywhere, go on for as long as it wanted." David Such stated that "the cutting contests, personality cults, and vices that characterized the jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s were mostly missing." The scene was reviewed and documented by Giddins, Peter Occhiogrosso of the SoHo Weekly News, Leroi Jones, Robert Palmer, and Stanley Crouch.
Steve McCall was an American jazz drummer.
The 5th Power is a live album by Lester Bowie recorded for the Italian Black Saint label and released in 1978. It was recorded during a concert tour of Europe by Bowie's group "From the Roots to the Source" and features performances by Bowie, Arthur Blythe, Amina Claudine Myers, Malachi Favors and Phillip Wilson.
The Organizer is the fourth album Lester Bowie recorded for the Japanese DIW label and the first album by his "New York Organ Ensemble". It was released in 1991 and features performances by Bowie, Steve Turre, Amina Claudine Myers James Carter, Phillip Wilson and Famoudou Don Moye.
African Children is a double LP by Lester Bowie recorded for the Italian Horo label and released in 1978. It features performances by Bowie, Arthur Blythe, Amina Claudine Myers, Malachi Favors and Phillip Wilson.
Lifea Blinec is an album by the American musician Muhal Richard Abrams, released on the Arista Novus label in 1978. It features performances by Abrams, Joseph Jarman, Douglas Ewart, Amina Claudine Myers and Thurman Barker.
Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition is a live album recorded on 7 July 1993 in Geneva, Switzerland by the Art Ensemble of Chicago and released on their own AECO label. It features performances by Lester Bowie, Joseph Jarman, Roscoe Mitchell, Malachi Favors and Don Moye with Chicago Beau, Amina Claudine Myers, Frank Lacy, James Carter and Herb Walker.
Reginald "Reggie" Nicholson is an American jazz drummer.
Iqua Colson, born Kristine Browne in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is an American vocalist, composer, lyricist, arts administrator, and educator.
South Delta Space Age is an album by the band Third Rail, featuring guitarist James Blood Ulmer, bassist Bill Laswell, drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste, and organists Amina Claudine Myers and Bernie Worrell. It was recorded in 1995 and released on the Antilles label.
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