Guy Berger Posted May 29, 2021 Report Share Posted May 29, 2021 A few years back I went and listened to a bunch of Muhal Richard Abrams - the Delmarks, the solo piano album Afrisong, the Black Saints and then 6-7 thereafter. Those 80s and 90s Muhal albums are mostly tightly linked to the jazz tradition, with the exception of the duets album with Roscoe Mitchell. But I can’t really say that about the final few albums - the 3 Pi albums plus the 2 chamber music recordings. Even the duets disc with Fred Anderson on Pi is really abstract. What prompted this change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted May 30, 2021 Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 No change. He was always everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabshakeh Posted May 30, 2021 Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 (edited) Those Pis do sound noticeably different to my ear to the big band records on Black Saint, but it could be down to simply having the material circumstances for the first time. I find it hard to trace any direct line in development for Abrams because he was always so diverse, even from the beginning. The only real periodisations i can see for Abrams’ music is in what seems to me to be his responses to / interests in wider fashions - to 60s-style high brow modernism in the Delmarks; to “the Tradition” in the Black Saints; and then perhaps in those later Pi records some of the reapprochment between jazz and modern composition / more academic styles that seems to be one of the overall developments of the last thirty years (again, possibly reflecting material circumstances more than anything else). But even then, there is nothing that direct. Edited May 30, 2021 by Rabshakeh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted May 30, 2021 Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 22 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said: No change. He was always everywhere. Indeed. Had the great pleasure of seeing his rehearsal big band in New York over a fascinating weekend of open performances not too long before he passed. It was very open but also incredibly tight! Also saw him in duo with George Lewis, and solo. He seemed like an amazing person and my only regret is not having had the opportunity to sit down and interview him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted May 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 22 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said: No change. He was always everywhere. Hmmmm. What was represented on recordings DID change... was this at MRA’s instigation, or the record labels’ decision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nessa Posted May 30, 2021 Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 13 minutes ago, Guy Berger said: Hmmmm. What was represented on recordings DID change... was this at MRA’s instigation, or the record labels’ decision? No one made Muhal do anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted May 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2021 14 minutes ago, Chuck Nessa said: No one made Muhal do anything. Ok! So I am curious what led him to document stylistically different music in the final ~20 years of his life! Maybe he thought that was under documented up until that point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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