Rashid Bakr (musician)

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Jemeel Moondoc and Rashid Bakr in the Rivbea studio, July 1976

Rashid Bakr (actually Charles Downs; born October 3, 1943 in Chicago ) is an American drummer of free and creative jazz .

Live and act

Rashid Bakr grew up in the Bronx, New York . Under the influence of the music of John Coltrane , he decided to become a musician, especially since an uncle was the swing drummer Jo Jones . As a child, Bakr met Art Blakey and Max Roach when they were visiting the family; from Roach he got his first drumsticks. Later role models were the drummers Andrew Cyrille , Elvin Jones , Sunny Murray and Milford Graves , but also Kenny Clarke and later Tony Williams . Rashid Bakr attended Queens College, studied chemistry and psychology, and graduated from Brooklyn College's School of Clinical Psychology .

After college and military service, the saxophonist Bobby Zankel made the acquaintance of Cecil Taylor , whose big band Bakr joined in 1973; at the time he performed two concerts with Taylor, at Columbia University and another at Carnegie Hall . The band also played bassist William Parker , who put him in touch with Jemeel Moondoc , who had worked in New York since 1976; Rashid Bakr then played in his ensemble Muntu until 1981 , with whom he recorded five albums. In the early 1980s, Bakr also played with Billy Bang , Roy Campbell , Raphe Malik , David Murray , David S. Ware , Frank Wright . In 1981 he worked again with Cecil Taylor and performed with Jimmy Lyons and William Parker in Europe.

After returning to New York, Bakr worked full-time as a social worker in the Lighthouse facility for the blind and founded the formation Other Dimensions in Music in the early 1980s with William Parker, Roy Campbell and the saxophonist / flutist Daniel Carter . In 1983 Bakr performed with the Cecil Taylor Unit on another European tour in Germany; In 1984 he worked on Cecil Taylor's album Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) ( Soul Note ), on which Bakr can also be heard as a singer. In 1993 Bakr worked again with the pianist on his FMP album Always a Pleasure with Sirone , Tristan Honsinger and Charles Gayle .

In 1996 Bakr played in a trio with Parker and saxophonist Frode Gjerstad ( Seeing New York from the Ear on Cadence Jazz Records ); 1998 in a trio with saxophonist Glenn Spearman and pianist Matthew Goodheart ( First and Last on Eremite). He also worked with Arthur Doyle , Charles Gayle , Ras Moshe , and with Thomas Borgmann , Peter Brötzmann (The Cooler Suite).

Discographic notes

  • Rashid Bakr Quintet - Earth Native (Majic Records, 2001)

literature

Web links

Commons : Rashid Bakr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Quoted from biography at AUM Fidelity.
personal data
SURNAME Bakr, Rashid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Downs, Charles (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American free and creative jazz drummer
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago