page_title: Muhal Richard Abrams
section_title: 1970s and 1980s, Loft jazz era
hierarchical_section_title: Muhal Richard Abrams / Later life and career / 1970s and 1980s, Loft jazz era
caption_attribution_description: English: Muhal Richard Abrams at Keystone Korner, San Francisco CA 4/29/79. Photo by Brian McMillen / www.brianmcmillenphotography.com
context_page_description: Muhal Richard Abrams was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the United States, Canada and Europe with his orchestra, sextet, quartet, duo and as a solo pianist. His musical affiliations constitute a "who's who" of the jazz world, including Max Roach, Dexter Gordon, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Art Farmer, Sonny Stitt, Anthony Braxton, and The Art Ensemble of Chicago.
context_section_description: In the 1970s, Abrams composed for symphony orchestras, string quartets, solo piano, voice, and big bands in addition to making a series of larger ensemble recordings that included harp and accordion. In the early 1970s, his big band had a weekly concert at the Transitions East performance space in Chicago. Abrams formed a sextet from other AACM members in 1972. The other musicians were Reggie Willis on bass, Steve McCall on drums, and Kalaparusha Difda, Wallace McMillan, and Henry Threadgill on various woodwind and saxophone instruments. With this band, Abrams had his first international concerts, playing the Berlin Jazz Festival in 1973. He had a successful solo concert at the Montreaux Jazz Festival the following year, as well as touring Europe with the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
  During this time, Abrams recorded extensively under his own name (frequently on the Black Saint label), and as a sideman for musicians such as Marion Brown (Sweet Earth Flying, 1974), Anthony Braxton (Duets 1976, 1976), Roscoe Mitchell (Roscoe Mitchell Quartet, 1976), and Chico Freeman (Morning Prayer, 1976, and Chico, 1977).
  Abrams left Chicago for New York in 1976. After initially living with other musicians, he moved his family there the following year. The move of city was partly to be at the centre of musical activity, and partly for financial reasons. Initially, there were very few concerts, but he garnered press attention and was able to record annually with Black Saint. Experience in writing extended compositions also helped Abrams and other AACM musicians in New York: "The compositions themselves showed that they were outside of the mainstream of jazz, and notice was taken by classical people. You can get access to these [classical music] ensembles, and it started to happen."
  In the late 1970s, Abrams was also part of the jazz peer-review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts. "As a Chicagoan who was identified with experimental music, yet who was respected by the ancien regime, Abrams was uniquely positioned to take a leading role in guiding the broad changes in both the demographics and the aesthetic directions of the panels that gradually took place."
  His 1-OQA+19 "juxtaposed complex written passages with propulsive rhythms"; and Lifea Blinec "presented multi-instrumentalism, text-sound, and electronic textures."
  He was involved in the local Loft Jazz scene in New York. In 1982, he presented an orchestral work at that year's New Music America festival in Chicago. He also helped set up the New York Chapter of the AACM, which first presented concerts in the city in 1982.
caption: Abrams at Keystone Korner in San Francisco, California, 1979
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