Nate Morgan

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Nate "Mrafu" Morgan (born February 10, 1964 , † around November 21, 2013 ) was an American jazz pianist and composer .

Live and act

Nate Morgan played in local bands during junior high school and took lessons from Joe Sample and Hampton Hawes . While still in high school, he worked in the music cooperative The Underground Musicians and Artists Association (UGMAA). In the following years he worked mainly in the jazz scene in Los Angeles a. a. with Horace Tapscott , in the 1970s also with Rufus and Chaka Khan ( Rags to Rufus , 1974) and Renée Geyer, in the early 1990s with the rap group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony . Stylistically influenced by Stanley Cowell and McCoy Tyner , he often appeared in the Charlie O’s Club in Van Nuys and in Encino in the salon with Mimi Melnick, a. a. with Arthur Blythe , John Heard , Charles Owens , Nedra Wheeler and Sonship Theus , also in a piano duo with Elias Negash. The Tapscottian Waltz , dedicated to Horace Tapscott, is one of his compositions , but he was never able to record it; he also wrote the score for the documentary I Build the Tower (2006).

Morgan, who released three albums under his own name, directed the Ujaama Ensemble (with Duane M. Carter, among others) and was also a member of the soul-jazz formation Build an Ark . In the field of jazz he was involved in 16 recording sessions between 1972 and 2008. a. with Sweet Baby J'ai , Bobby Bradford / John Carter , Bobby Bryant ( Flowers Stolen from the Yards of Old Folks , 2002) and in 2008 with Azar Lawrence ( Speak the Word ), before a stroke ended his career that same year . Pharoah Sanders , Ojenke, Otis O'Solomon Smith and Arthur Blythe played alongside Kamau Daa'ood at a tribute concert on his 50th birthday .

Discographic notes

  • Retribution, Reparation (Nimbus, 1982), with Danny Cortez, Jesse Sharps, Joel Ector, Fritz Wise
  • Journey into Nigritia (Nimbus / Vivid Sound, 1983), with Dadisi Komolafe, Jeff Littleton, Fritz Wise
  • Live in Santa Barbara (Nimbus, 1996), with Geoff Littleton, Fritz Wise

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A Tribute Fit for a Jazz Man , Los Angeles Times February 13, 2013
  2. ↑ Obituary ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / brickwahl.com
  3. ↑ Steven L. Isoardi: The Dark Tree: Jazz and the Community Arts in Los Angeles , 2006, 121
  4. ↑ UGMAA was a musician initiative in Los Angeles around Horace Tapscott. The Underground Musicians Artists Association , influenced by John Coltrane , Ornette Coleman , Malcolm X and H. Rap ​​Brown, on the initiative of Horace Tapscott in the mid-1960s, the contemporary black jazz musicians of the west coast came together for the purpose of political, economic and aesthetic self-determination . See Musikurlaub Lexicon
  5. ^ Portrait at Greenleaf Music
  6. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 22, 2013)
personal data
SURNAME Morgan, Nate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morgan, Mrafu (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1964
DATE OF DEATH at November 21, 2013