Adegoke Colson
Adegoke Steve Colson is a noted pianist, composer, saxophonist and educator who has performed internationally as a leader of jazz ensembles ranging from trios to orchestras. His work has been recorded on labels that include Columbia/Sony, Evidence, and Black Saint. His Solo Piano recording Tones For, reflecting on the lives and work of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass, was his most recent release on Silver Sphinx, the label he co-owns with his wife and musical partner, Iqua Colson. The liner notes were written by fellow pianist and MacArthur Fellow, Vijay Iyer. Among the various accolades received internationally, the CD was picked as The Jazz Times Editor’s Choice. His other recordings have also received high praise, including The Untarnished Dream – with Iqua, and Jazz Legends Andrew Cyrille and Reggie Workman; this CD was voted into the top 40 of the International Jazz Critics Poll. His work as an artist has been discussed/reviewed in many languages and can be found in countless magazines, newspapers, periodicals, and in several books. Steve auditioned into the Northwestern University School of Music and left for Chicago in September 1967. After receiving his degree he lived in Chicago for a decade before returning to the East Coast. While in Chicago he became an early member of The Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the 70s, a renowned musicians’ collective that has influenced music internationally in the 20th and 21st Century. The Colsons released Triumph! their first recording on their Silver Sphinx record label in 1979. Years later, in November 2011, Soul Jazz Records of London, UK, included the Triumph! album cover in their prestigious book, Freedom, Rhythm and Sound (compiled by noted broadcaster Gilles Peterson and Soul Jazz label owner Stuart Baker), and a track from the recording in the CD-LP compilation, placing their work with music icons including Maurice White, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Mary Lou Williams. This collection/retrospective documented the influential and independent musicians of the years 1965-83 who took control of their music – crediting us all as the early roots of the “indie” movement. The acclaimed exhibition, Soul of a Nation, featured the album cover and liner notes of Triumph! The exhibit opened 2017 at The Tate Modern in London and has toured extensively, including stops in the United States. Steve’s ensembles have performed on some of the world’s leading stages and featured artists such as David Murray, Rachelle Farrell, Joseph Jarman, Tyshawn Sorey, Oliver Lake, and Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Davis and Henry Threadgill. As a headliner Steve has shared billing and stage with artists that include Muhal Richard Abrams, Pharoah Sanders, Hannibal, Branford Marsalis, Max Roach, T.S. Monk, James “Blood” Ulmer, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie, Dr. Billy Taylor, Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Sun Ra, Oscar Peterson, and Freddie Hubbard. He has collaborated with artists in other disciplines including celebrated visual artists Don Miller and Willie Cole, acclaimed screenwriter and playwright Richard Wesley, legendary dancer Carmen de Lavallade, and most frequently with Master Poets and activists, Amiri and Amina Baraka. A critically acclaimed figure, Steve’s music has been compared to that of Monk, Mingus, and Ellington as well as Ives, Berio, and Stravinsky. Steve has received several commissions and awards for music composition; a prolific writer, he has authored more than one hundred pieces for ensemble and six major works for Jazz orchestra. His music written for his small ensembles has also been recorded and performed by fellow artists including Trio Three (Lake, Cyrille, Workman), Hannibal, John Hicks, Richard Davis; and most recently Andrew Cyrille’s “The News” released on ECM August 2021. His major works include his multi-media piece, Greens, Rice, and a Rope written with the support of The National Endowment for the Arts and premiered at Newark Symphony Hall on the day City of Newark proclaimed “Adegoke Steve Colson Day” during the national celebration of New Music America; Treasure the New City written at the request of the East Orange Historical Society in honor of the 150th Anniversary of The City of East Orange; “…as in a Cultural Reminiscence…”, a commission by New Jersey Chamber Music Society that premiered during opening season of New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in which Steve included literary masters Amiri Baraka and Richard Wesley – performed again in Paris, France where it was recorded live for Mezzo Channel. He also collaborated with Amiri Baraka for the national Lost Jazz Shrines project, an outgrowth of a United States Congressional Resolution declaring Jazz a “national treasure.” For this he arranged, orchestrated and conducted the music of piano stride master Willie “The Lion” Smith, also performing the role of “The Lion” in Baraka’s play for this celebration. The performance was aired on PBS. Other examples of TV or film presentations of Steve’s work include a cameo appearance in Retourner a Goree, the Documentary Film (winner, PAFF) by Youssou N’Dour of Senegal, and the role of the Piano Player in the HBO’s series, Vinyl, produced by Mick Jagger and directed by Martin Scorsese. In May 2018 Steve was honored by Northwestern University in observance of the 50th Anniversary of The 1968 Takeover of the Bursar’s Office. An activist from an early age, Steve was one of the strategists of what is now called the most successful takeover of a major American University, and is featured in the documentary, The Takeover – The Revolution of the Black Experience at Northwestern University. This action, while only a freshman in college, reflected his values and focus on social justice – and many of his artistic works echo that theme and the African American experience. Steve was commissioned by NJPAC to compose a work as part of the 350th Anniversary celebration of The City of Newark. Here Is The Place, Our City – for 20 voice male chorus, oboe, harp, two pianos and a Jazz quintet – premiered at NJPAC April 7, 2017 to a standing ovation. Honorable Ras Baraka, Mayor of The City of Newark, NJ, recognized Steve by City Proclamation on the occasion of the premiere. Steve completes his most recent commission, awarded May 2020 by American Composers Forum, with the Chicago Premiere of Incandescence on October 30, 2020 at The Logan Center for the Arts. Steve’s latest commission, supported by South Arts/Jazz Road, was announced October 7, 2021 and is scheduled to premier in Harlem, New York during 2022. Always involved in education, Steve was one of 21 artist-educators selected from around the country by the National Endowment of the Arts to pilot the concept of Artist Residencies in the 1980s. He is currently artist in residence in Jazz Studies at Cicely L. Tyson School of Performing & Fine Arts; lectures internationally; is a Professor in the Bloomfield College Creative Arts & Technology Department, where he helped shape the vision and concept 30 years ago as part of an initiative led by The Office of the President; and a Lecturer at Rutgers University. As a native of East Orange, NJ, Steve considers one of his greatest honors his 2018 induction into The East Orange Hall of Fame, with several other distinguished E.O. talents including Althea Gibson, Dionne Warwick, Naughty by Nature, John Amos, and Whitney Houston.
