Ahmed Abdullah (born Leroy Bland; May 10, 1946) is an American jazz
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
er who was a prominent member of
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
's band.
Biography
He began playing the trumpet at age 13 in his native
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. One of the first groups he performed with was the Master Brotherhood. By the 1970s, he was performing in New York's loft scene with various groups including the Melodic Art-Tet ( Charles Brackeen, Roger Blank and
Ronnie Boykins
Ronald Boykins (December 17, 1935 – April 20, 1980) was a jazz double bass, bassist and is best known for his work with pianist/bandleader Sun Ra, although he had played with such disparate musicians as Muddy Waters, Johnny Griffin, and Jimmy Wi ...
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
Arkestra. Abdullah formed his own band in 1972, and joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1975, working there on and off until 1993, when Sun Ra died. He stayed on with the Arkestra after Sun Ra's demise working under the leadership of John Gilmore and then Marshall Allen. During his time with the Arkestra, Abdullah participated in more than 25 recordings and traveled extensively with Sun Ra.Ahmed Abdullah with Louis Reyes Rivera "Excerpts from A Strange Celestial Road (Traveling the Spaceways)" , Ahmedian.com; accessed March 28, 2015 After leaving the Arkestra, Abdullah wrote memoirs of his time with that organization. In 2002, Ahmed began teaching a course on the Music and Philosophy of Sun Ra at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
Abdullah's own bands have at times been called Abdullah, the Solomonic Unit, Diaspora and Ebonic Tones. In 1995, Ahmed and his wife, Monique Ngozi Nri, formed Melchizedek Music Productions (MMP), to breathe new life into the Sun Ra Arkestra. In 1998, Abdullah was asked to be the music director of Sistas' Place in Bedford Stuyvesant,
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. In 2019, Abdullah and his band Diaspora collaborated with former Sun Ra colleague Francisco Mora Catlett's ensemble AfroHORN to form Diaspora Meets AfroHORN and create the first recording for Melchizedek Music Productions: '' Jazz: A Music of the Spirit / Out of Sistas' Place''.
In 2023, Blank Forms Editions published ''A Strange Celestial Road: My Time in the Sun Ra Arkestra'', recounting Abdullah's participation in the Arkestra over a span of 20 years.
977
Year 977 ( CMLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Europe
* May – Boris II, dethroned emperor (''tsar'') of Bulgaria, and his brother Roman manage to escape from captivity in Const ...
Cadence
In Classical music, Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a Phrase (music), phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution (music), resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don ...
, recorded 1978) released 1980 with Chico Freeman
*'' Life's Force'' (About Time, 1979) with Vincent Chancey, Jay Hoggard, Muneer Abdul Fatah, Jerome Hunter, Rashied Sinan
*'' Liquid Magic'' ( Silkheart, 1987) with Charles Brackeen, Malachi Favors, Alvin Fielder
* '' Ahmed Abdullah and the Solomonic Quintet'' (Silkheart, 1988) with Charles Moffett, David S. Ware and Fred Hopkins, Masujaa
*'' Dedication'' ( CIMP, 1998) with Carlos Ward and Alex Blake
*'' Actual Proof'' (CIMP, 1999) with NAM: Alex Harding, Masa Kamaguchi, Jimmy Weinstein
*'' Song of Time: Live at the Vision Festival'' ( Clean Feed, 2004) with NAM: Alex Harding, Masa Kamaguchi, Jimmy Weinstein
*'' Traveling the Spaceways'' ( Planet Arts, 2004), Billy Bang, Salim Washington, Craig Harris, Cody Moffett, Masujaa, Radu ben Judah, Monique Ngozi Nri, Owuar Arunga
*'' Tara's Song'' (TUM, 2005) with Billy Bang, Alex Harding, Alex Blake and Andrei Strobert
*'' Jazz: A Music of the Spirit / Out of Sistas' Place'' (Amedian, 2019), with Diaspora Meets AfroHORN: Ahmed Abdullah, Francisco Mora Catlett, Alex Harding, Donald Smith, Radu ben Judah, Bob Stewart, Roman Diaz, Ronnie Burrage, Don Chapman, Monique Ngozi Nri
Black Saint
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italy, Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.
History
...
Cosmos
The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...
Soul Note
Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.
History
Black S ...
The Grip
''The Grip'' is a live album, live debut album by jazz saxophonist Arthur Blythe, recorded at the Brook, New York City in 1977 and released on the India Navigation label.India Navigation, 1977)
*''
Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and different ...
Namesake
A namesake is a person, place, or thing bearing the name of another. Most commonly, it refers to an individual who is purposely named after another (e.g. John F. Kennedy Jr would be the namesake of John F. Kennedy). In common parlance, it may ...
'' (Silkheart, 1987)
With The Group (Abdullah,
Marion Brown
Marion Brown (September 8, 1931 – October 18, 2010) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist, and ethnomusicologist. He was a member of the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City during the 1960s, playing alongsi ...
Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer ...
)
* ''
Live
Live may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film
* ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film
* ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film
*'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...