National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters
Photo by Alan Nahigian
National Endowment for the Arts Announces the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters
Nation's highest honor in jazz is bestowed on eight living legends
May 21, 2009
Washington, DC - The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today announced the recipients of the 2010 NEA Jazz Masters Award -- the nation's highest honor in this distinctly American music. The eight recipients will each receive a $25,000 grant award and be publicly honored in an awards ceremony and concert on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
2010 NEA Jazz Master
Muhal Richard Abrams
Born Sept. 19, 1930, in Chicago, IL
Pianist, Composer, Educator
"I am honored to be chosen as an NEA Jazz Master, it is humbling, as well as encouraging, to have my name placed among the illustrious list of previous NEA Jazz Masters."
Muhal Richard Abrams -- pianist, composer, administrator, and educator -- is predominately a self-taught musician. He is highly respected by critics and musical peers as both a pianist and composer in a variety of musical styles, including jazz, extended forms of improvisation, and classical music.
In the 1950s, Abrams wrote arrangements for pianist King Fleming's Jazz Orchestra. From 1957-59, he played hard bop in Walter Perkins' group MJT + 3 (Modern Jazz Two Plus Three) and accompanied leading jazz performers during their visits to Chicago, including Kenny Durham, Art Farmer, Hank Mobley, Ray Nance, Max Roach, and Sonny Stitt. In 1961, Abrams began his foray into extended forms of composition and improvisation in his Experimental Band, which included musicians such as saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman.
Abrams is a co-founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) (in 1965), founder of the AACM School of Music, and currently president of the AACM New York Chapter. AACM, which has played a crucial role in the development of original approaches to extended forms of composition and improvisation, has produced such distinguished members as Anthony Braxton, Kalaparush Ahra Difda, Leroy Jenkins, Steve McCall, Amina Claudine Myers, Wadada Leo Smith, Henry Threadgill, and members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Abrams first traveled to Europe in 1973 while still residing in Chicago. After relocating to New York in 1977, he traveled extensively to Europe and Japan, gradually acquiring a greater international reputation. In 1990 he became the first recipient of the prestigious Danish JAZZPAR Award, and almost a decade later Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley issued a proclamation declaring April 11, 1999, to be Muhal Richard Abrams Day. In 2008, he was chosen by United States Artists to be a Prudential Fellow in the field of music.
Abrams' compositional prowess is evident even beyond jazz. His Tranversion Op. 6 was performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and his String Quartet No. 2 was performed by renowned chamber ensemble Kronos Quartet.
During the last 30 years, Abrams has taught jazz composition and improvisational classes at Columbia University, Syracuse University, Stamford University, Mills College, University of California in San Diego, the New England Conservatory in Boston, the BMI Composers Workshop in New York City, and internationally at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, the Banff Center in Banff, Canada, and at workshops at the Sant'Anna Arresi Jazz Festival in Sardegna, Italy.
Abrams' current activities include composing for various types of instrumental combinations, performing solo piano concerts, and touring throughout the world with various ensembles.
Selected Discography:
Levels and Degrees of Light, Delmark, 1967
Spiral Live at Montreux 1978,Novus, 1978
Rejoicing with the Light, Black Saint,1983
UMO Jazz Orchestra, Plays the Music of Muhal Richard Abrams, Slam, 1988
Streaming, Pi, 20005
http://www.arts.gov/national/jazz/jmCMS/master.php?id=2010_01
