Amina Claudine Myers

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Amina Myers (2005)

Amina Claudine Myers (born March 21, 1943 in Blackwell , Arkansas ) is an American jazz musician (pianist, organist and singer).

life and work

Myers grew up in a gospel and rhythm 'n' blues environment in Texas , but as a youngster also listened to European music, such as Mozart's Requiem. She sang in gospel choirs and began playing the piano at the age of seven . In the mid-1960s she moved to Chicago as a school teacher , where she played with Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt , but then joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians . Today Myers is considered an important representative of the AACM. Amina recorded her first jazz album in 1969 with saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre . In 1976 she moved to New York City , where she recorded with Lester Bowie (African Children, 1978) and Muhal Richard Abrams (Duet, 1981), and founded her own groups. In the early 1980s she lived in Europe for a few years. In 1985 she played in Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra . Since the 1990s she can be heard more often around Bill Laswell . In Lester Bowie's Organ Ensemble she invented idiosyncratic combinations of traditional Afro-American music and free jazz. But she also worked with Marian McPartland , the Art Ensemble of Chicago , Archie Shepp , David Murray , Arthur Blythe , Frank Lowe , Jeanne Lee , Leroy Jenkins , Jim Pepper and Ray Anderson .

Myers wrote a contemporary musical, several larger compositions for various ensembles, participated in the off-Broadway musical production Ain't Misbehavin ' and also appeared as an actress . The roots of their music are to this day in gospel, spiritual and blues . Myers doesn't just juxtapose these elements, but allows them to flow into one another with different emphasis. As a singer, she impresses with her significant, full voice, which brings earthy blues to bear well.

Discographic notes

Amina Claudine Myers, 1983
  • Poems For Piano: The Piano Music Of Marion Brown (1979)
  • Song For Mother E (1979, with Pheeroan akLaff )
  • Salutes Bessie Smith (1980, with Cecil McBee and Jimmy Lovelace )
  • The Circle Of Time (1983, with Don Pate and Thurman Barker )
  • Jumping In The Sugar Bowl (1984, with Thomas Palmer and Reggie Nicholson)
  • Country Girl (1986, with Patience Higgins, Carlos Ward , Ricky Ford , Jerome Harris, Reggie Nicholson, and Bola Idowu)
  • Amina (1987, with Jerome Harris, Reggie Nicholson, Bola Idowu, Ray Mantilla , Catherine Russell and David Peaston)
  • Women In (E) Motion Festival (1988, released 1993, with Jerome Harris and Reggie Nicholson)
  • Wasted Life Blues (1988). In: Various, Women in (E) Motion Sampler (1988–1994, released 1995, with Jerome Harris and Reggie Nicholson)
  • In Touch (1989, with Jerome Harris, Reggie Nicholson, Flare Funston, Pete Levin, and Jason Mills)
  • Marian McPartland 's Piano Jazz With Guest Amina Claudine Myers (1991)

literature

  • Gudrun Endress , The basis is gospel and blues. Amina Claudine Myers. In: Jazz Podium 4/2005, p. 24f
  • Christian Broecking, Black Codes, Verbrecher Verlag, 2005

swell

  1. ↑ According to Jazz At the 10 Spot Birthday Calendar ; much of the older lexigraphic literature, e.g. B. Reclam 's Jazz Lexicon , but also Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia (London 2007) give the year of birth 1942

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Myers, Amina Claudine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Blackwell , Arkansas , USA