Richard Dunbar was a player of the

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

, playing in the

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

scene. He was born in

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 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, on May 22, 1944. He began studying the French horn in high school and never put it down. He also was known to play the bass guitar and shakeray, an African percussion instrument. His first known appearance on record was on a 1968 recording by Bill Dixon, University of the Streets. He appeared as a sideman with players such as Sam Rivers, Earl Freeman and Ted Daniel. In the 1980s, he started a small label, Jahari Records, where he released five records under his own name: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dunbar also had associations with

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 ...

. Around 1993, Dunbar moved to Paris, where he lived, continuing to play and teach music, until February 8, 2006, when he died suddenly at the age of 61, apparently of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

, on the way to a gig. At the time he had just completed his first film and was working on the release of 5 new recordings.

Discography

*''Clear-Eyed Vision'' (1981) *''Running Buddies, Volume 1'' (1982) *''Running Buddies, Volume 2'' (1983) *''Dream Messages'' (1986) *''Dancing To The Light'' (1987)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunbar, Richard 1944 births 2006 deaths Musicians from Brooklyn American jazz horn players 20th-century American musicians Jazz musicians from New York (state)