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Thurman Barker
Barker is a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, (AACM) an organization with which he continues his association to this day. He has recorded with Cecil Taylor, MuhalRichard Abrams, Amina Claudine Meyers, Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Sam Rivers, Billy Bang, Joseph Jarman, and Henry Threadgill.
Barker has produced five recordings under his own record label, Uptee Productions. “The Way I Hear It” was released in January of '99. His first album “Voyage,” was reissued in CD form in November '99. “Time Factor” was in December 2001 and “Strike Force” in February, 2004."Rediscovered" his latest effort, in 2009.
In 1994, his work "Dialogue," commissioned by Mutable Music, was premiered at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. He has since completed a second commission by Mutable Music. He has also realized two commissions by the Delaware Valley ChamberOrchestra, in Sullivan County, New York. The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra premiered a chamber piece of his entitled "Expansions" in May of '99.
In the fall of '99 Thurman Barker was given the honor of being a lecturer at Smolny University in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has taught and developed the jazz program at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York since 1993 and is an Associate Professor of Jazz Studies there.
2009 brought about the release of “Rediscovered,” again on his Uptee label. This production utilizes the organ trio format led by drummer Barker who explores freedom and structure in composition while being very accessible. Organist Lonnie Gasparini and saxophonist/flutist Sam Morrison back Thurman with taste and sensitivity on 14 original compositions plus a cover of “Iris” by Wayne Shorter and “Yesterdays” by Jerome Kern.
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Butch Morris: Current Trends in Racism in Modern America
by Howard Mandel
When a full house of ardent downtown music followers flocked to the old Kitchen, a performance loft on Broome Street in Manhattan's artsy Soho district on the cold night of February 1, 1985 to hear Current Trends in Racism in Modern America by Lawrence Douglas “Butch" Morris--I don't recall if it was advertised as “Conduction No. 1"--no one knew what to expect. At that time, as now, Butch was an inspired and productive presence on a diversified music ...
read moreThe Jazz Doctors: Intensive Care / Prescriptions Filled
by Chris May
Beyond its initiates, the so-called New Thing which emerged in mainly, but not exclusively, Black US jazz in the 1960s/70s, was perceived so amorphously that prairie-wide distinctions between its practitioners went unregarded. Among the general jazz audience, the musicians were lumped together as a horde of crazed zombies who lacked all technique, and who had replaced creativity with noise and anger, and beauty with ugliness. Tenor saxophonists were particularly prone to such dismissal and, given the number ...
read moreSam Rivers: Braids
by John Sharpe
With the fourth issue in its Sam Rivers archival series, the NoBusiness imprint has unearthed a cracking concert recording of a terrific quartet, completed by bassist Dave Holland, drummer Thurman Barker and tubaist Joe Daley. Very few can match Rivers' breadth of experience, which includes not only with leading lights of the 1960s New Thing like Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler and Bill Dixon, but also stylistic antecedents like Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie (the last during the late ...
read moreSam Rivers Quartet: Braids
by Mario Calvitti
Nonostante sia stato indiscutibilmente uno dei massimi esponenti della musica afroamericana, il polistrumentista Sam Rivers non ha mai pienamente beneficiato del riconoscimento dovutogli per gli enormi meriti artistici; non quando era in vita, e non ancora oggi, a dieci anni dalla scomparsa. La sua discografia da leader è cominciata molto tardi, quando Rivers era già quarantenne, con una serie di titoli pubblicati su Blue Note negli anni '60, e proseguita con alcune incisioni per la Impulse! nel decennio ...
read moreThurman Barker: Strike Force
by Stephen Latessa
I have a real fondness for percussion-based albums. Art Blakey's Drums Around The Corner and The African Beat, not to mention Sabu's Palo Congo, have a quirkily distinctive place in my collection. There is a certain unspoken challenge assumed in making a percussion album. The artist sets out to prove just how musical, for lack of a better word, his or her instrument is. They assert the primacy of the beat, eschewing the clutter of horns or strings. ...
read moreJazz this week: Kenny Barron, Tyondai Braxton, Thurman Barker, an all-star band with Cohen, Wilson, Hill & Oh, and more
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
It's a terrifically busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with a number of interesting musicians visiting town over the next few days. So let's skip the rest of the preamble and go straight to the highlights... Wednesday, April 6 Pianist Kenny Barron returns to St. Louis for the first of two evenings with his trio at Jazz at the Bistro. Officially designated as an NEA “Jazz Master," the 72-year-old Barron is a stylistically versatile pianist, albeit ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Thurman Barker
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Today, let's look at some videos of drummer, percussionist, and composer Thurman Barker, who's coming to St. Louis to play two events in early April at Washington University. He'll perform first in a ticketed concert for the Jazz at Holmes series on Thursday, April 7, followed the next evening by a free event, improvising to silent films on Friday, April 8 at Wash U's Brown Hall. Barker is a 68-year-old Chicago native whose involvement in creative music dates back to ...
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Thurman Barker Quartet Performance At Bard College on Wednesday, December 11
Source:
All About Jazz
Concert will feature music from Barker's recent recording Time Factor
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-The Thurman Barker Quartet-guitarist James Emery, pianist Rob Schwimmer, bassist Jerome Harris, and percussionist Barker-will perform in concert at Bard College on Wednesday, December 11. The program, open to the public without charge, will begin at 8:00 p.m. in the Old Gym.
The program will feature performances of works from Barker's recent CD Time Factor. “The music on the recording was inspired by time," says Barker. “We all work ...
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