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eddie harris "instant death"


Guest donald petersen

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Guest akanalog

maybe chuck can answer this.

i am just curious how muhal richard abrams signed on to perform on eddie harris' "instant death" album.

not that it is an overtly commercial album-just seems weird that in 72? abrams was playing plinky e-piano on a sort of funky harris album.

were harris and abrams friends? i don't think abrams would play on an album just for $$$.

i think i read harris and abrams and roscoe mitchell maybe had a group called "the experimental quartet" in chicago in the earlier 60s? was this the connection?

any thoughts or recollections on this group, chuck? sounds interesting.

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I think (but can't remember the source) there was a loose connection between Eddie Harris and the AACM members - playing free from exclusively was not a criterion for membership. Eddie was well versed in free playing - he did a lot of it in his quartet with Jodie Christian, Richard Smith, and Bob Crowder. And just like the AEOC sometimes made fun of popular musics, so did Eddie.

Or maybe Jodie Christian, who played on Eddie's albums up to "Instant Death", wasn't available. Christian played an electric piano of that brand in Eddie's group. Abrams played on one more session with Eddie in 1973 - one track was on the 2LP set "Excursions".

And I think Eddie kept contact with his former bandmates and the Chicago scene - he invited Cedar Walton, Ron Carter, and Billy Higgins in the late 1970's, who had been on his very first Atlantic LPs.

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  • 14 years later...

I've just discovered this old thread whilst wondering exactly the same thing as the OP. 

Abrams is also on the even more commercial That Is Why You're Overweight, although he's less of a presence there than on Instant Death.

For added AACM points, that album, once it's worked through its funk and comedy tracks, has a track of near unaccompanied solo saxophone by Eddie Harris towards the end. It's an odd thing to find on what's otherwise a funk record.

On 11/04/2006 at 4:28 PM, mikeweil said:

 Eddie was well versed in free playing - he did a lot of it in his quartet with Jodie Christian, Richard Smith, and Bob Crowder. 

Does anyone know of any examples of Harris playing free on record, with this group or otherwise? 

Edited by Rabshakeh
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