Thurman Barker

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Thurman Barker (* 8. January 1948 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American jazz - drummer , percussionist and composer .

Live and act

Barker began his music career when he was sixteen with blues singer Mighty Joe Young . He first studied at Empire State College , where he graduated with a bachelor's degree. He later studied drums and percussion with Edward Parimba at the American Conservatory of Music with Harold Jones and at Roosevelt University in Chicago . He first played as an accompanist for Billy Eckstine , Bette Midler and Marvin Gaye . For 10 years, Barker was the house drummer at the Schubert Theater in Chicago, where he was touring theater tour groups at performances such asHair accompanied. In 1968 he played in Joseph Jarman's first formation (before founding the Art Ensemble ). Eventually he joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), to which he still feels connected today. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked with musicians in the AACM environment such as Muhal Richard Abrams , Pheeroan akLaff , Leroy Jenkins , Roscoe Mitchell , but also with Billy Bang , Lawrence Butch Morris , Henry Threadgill and above all with Cecil Taylor , with whom he toured Europe several times. In the late 1970s he was a member of the formations of Anthony Braxton and Sam Rivers , and in the mid-1980s he played in the trio of Jarman and Amina Claudine Myers . Barker also released four of his own albums under his own record label "Uptee". Currently (2012), he leads the ensemble Thurman Barker's time factor , the James Emery , Rob Schwimmer (keyboards) and Jerome Harris (bass) belong.

In addition to his work as a drummer, Barker became increasingly active as a composer in the 1990s. In 1994 his work "Dialogue" was performed in the Merkin Concert Hall in New York. The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra then performed two of his compositions, "Expansions" in May 1999 and "Time Factor" in October 2000. Since 1993 he has also taught at Bard College in Annadale-on-Hudson, New York , where he is an Associated Professor. In 1999 he was visiting professor at the University of Saint Petersburg .

Like Pheeroan akLaff, Phillip Wilson , Steve McCall and Don Moye, Thurman Barker belongs to the generation of jazz drummers who - despite their close relationship with free jazz - have increasingly found their way back to playing over a meter or a continuous beat, whereby the Freedom that was once achieved is not given up, but is implicit in the more traditional game and resonates as an expanding experience.

Discography

As a leader

  • The Way I Hear It (Uptee, 1999)
  • Voyage (Uptee, 1999)
  • Time factor (Uptee, 2001)
  • Strike Force (Uptee, 2004)

As a sideman

  • Art Ensemble Of Chicago: Art Ensemble 1967-68 (Nessa)
  • Muhal Richard Abrams: Levels And Degrees Of Light ( Delmark , 1967)
  • Pheeroan akLaff: Fits Like A Glove ( Gramavision , 1983)
  • Billy Bang: The Fire From Within (Soul Note, ca.1984)
  • Anthony Braxton: Performance (Quartet) 1979 (hatART)
  • Joseph Jarman: As If It Were The Seasons (Delmark, 1968)
  • Leroy Jenkins: Themes & Improvisations On The Blues (CRI, 1992)
  • John Lindberg : Discussion 5 (Black Saint, 1981)
  • Roscoe Mitchell: Roscoe Mitchell (Chief, 1978)
  • Lawrence Butch Morris: Testament - A Conduction Collection (New World, 1988-95)
  • Amina Claudine Myers: The Circle Of Time (Black Saint, 1983)
  • Sam Rivers: Waves (Tomato, 1978), Contrasts ( ECM Records , 1979)
  • Cecil Taylor: Live In Bologna (Leo, 1978), Live In Vienna (Leo, 1978), Olu Iwa (Soul Note, 1986)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Berendt / Huesmann, p. 441 f.
  2. ↑ The CD edition Art Ensemble 1967-68 contains the LPs under the direction of Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, which were created shortly before the founding of the Art Ensemble (later Art Ensemble of Chicago ). Thurman Barker made a guest appearance here; see. Cook & Morton, 2002
personal data
SURNAME Barker, Thurman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois