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Ronald Shannon Jackson
I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas in 1940. Both my parents were music lovers. My mother played piano and organ at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church, and worked as a schoolteacher. My father owned the only black-owned local record store and jukebox business. On one side of my family is Curtis Ousley (who became famous as King Curtis). On the other is David “Fathead” Newman. I started playing drums in elementary school under the clarinetist John Carter, and in high school under Mr. Baxter, the same teacher who taught Ornette Coleman, Curtis Ousley, Dewey Redman, John Carter, Julius Hemphill, Charles Moffett, and James Jordan. I began playing professionally in Dallas with members of the Ray Charles band, and worked in Fort Worth, Houston, New Haven, and Bridgeport before moving to New York City in 1966. I attended New York University along with alto saxophonist René McLean, trumpeter Charles Sullivan, and bassist Abdul Malik, who had worked with Thelonious Monk. Since that time, I have performed with many legendary jazz musicians including Charles Mingus, Betty Carter, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Kenny Dorham, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ray Bryant, Stanley Turrentine, Bennie Maupin, Shirley Scott and others. I performed and recorded with three musical revolutionaries who virtually defined jazz in the 1970s: Albert Ayler, Cecil Taylor, and Ornette Coleman. I am the only musician to perform and record with all three. After my final performance with Ornette Coleman on Saturday Night Live in 1979, I created The Decoding Society, whose classic recordings, including “Eye on You,” “Mandance,” “Street Priest,” “Barbeque Dog,” and “When Colors Play” breathed new life into American music. On more than 15 albums and countless tours, I helped launch the careers of some of the most talented musicians in jazz, including Bill Frisell, Byard Lancaster, Billy Bang, James “Blood” Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Melvin Gibbs, Akbar Ali, Jef Lee Johnson, Robin Eubanks, Eric Person, and James Carter. During the 1980s, I traveled on behalf of the Voice of America and the U.S. Information Service to 15 African countries, India, and eight East Asian countries with The Decoding Society. During a solo trip to Africa, I composed much of “When Colors Play.” My string quartets and other composed music have been performed by the most noted orchestras in Europe and the United States, the Cologne Jazz Society, WDR (Köln) and on radio in France, Germany, England, and Poland.
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Albert Ayler: At Slugs’ Saloon 1966 Revisited
by Mark Corroto
With Albert Ayler it has seemingly always been what If." What if he had survived that plunge to his death in the East River in 1970? Setting aside the question of whether he was murdered or committed suicide, how would he have altered the course of music if he lived beyond those 34 years? At the time of his passing he had fueled a revolution both in America and Europe for free jazz. Let's not fail to remember that his ...
read moreAlbert Ayler Quintet: At Slugs’ Saloon 1966 Revisited
by Chris May
There continues to be as much discussion about Albert Ayler's personality and motivations as there is about the music he left us. Was he a religious fundamentalist? Was he bi-polar? Was he an attention seeker? Was he some sort of leather fetishist? The evidence suggests Ayler may have been borderline bi-polar, but as for the other questions, the answer is a resounding No." A clue to where Ayler was coming from, and where he was going to, ...
read moreAlbert Ayler: La Cave Live-Cleveland 1966-Revisited
by Chris May
Cleveland club La Cave, a grungy cellar which could accommodate around two hundred people, opened as a folk venue in 1962, transitioned into rock mid-decade, and closed in 1969. Along the way, in amongst such counterculture flagbearers as the Velvet Underground and The Fugs, La Cave booked a few of the bad boys of so-called new thing" jazz, among them tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, a Cleveland hometown hero. The 2xCD La Cave Live-Cleveland 1966-Revisited comprises just over ...
read moreRonald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society: When Colors Play
by Derek Taylor
Prior to Knit Classics’ recent reissue deluge all of Ronald Shannon Jackson’s recordings as a leader were out of print. This may not seem like much of travesty to those unfamiliar with Jackson’s catalog but when you consider that he had over a dozen albums to his credit the reality of the rate of attrition begins to sink in. Fortunately for everyone involved the Knitting Factory’s new reissue imprint has chosen Jackson (along with Rashied Ali) as one of the ...
read more"Another Kind Of Funky Drummer", A Tribute To Ronald Shannon Jackson On WPFW This Friday Night
Source:
Chris Rich
Tune in to WPFW radio’s Overnight Jazz Part I, this Friday beginning at 12AM (midnight) for “Another Kind of Funky Drummer”, a tribute to Ronald Shannon Jackson, who passed into ancestry this past weekend. In addition to the varied Jackson music to be heard as presented by program host Bobby Hill, the program will also feature a rare, never before heard 1983 interview with the gifted drummer, as conducted by university professor, archivist, and legacy WPFW programmer Art Cromwell. Art’s ...
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