Amina Claudine Myers

Amina Claudine Myers
Background information
Born (1942-03-21) March 21, 1942
Blackwell, Arkansas, United States
Genres Jazz, Gospel
Occupation(s) Musician, composer, arranger
Years active 1969–present

Amina Claudine Myers (born March 21, 1942) is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and arranger.[1]

Biography

Born in Blackwell, Arkansas[2] (a small community on US 64 in western Conway County), Myers started singing and playing the piano and organ as a child in church choirs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas, where she grew up, and directed choirs at an early age. "Myers was brought up largely by her great-aunt, a schoolteacher, and her great-uncle, a carpenter by trade who played the clarinet, piano, and flute".[2] She "started taking piano lessons around the age of four, and when she was seven, her family moved to Roosevelt, a black community outside Dallas. Myers took piano and violin lessons, but eventually, partly for financial reasons, settled on the piano, taking weekly lessons of fifteen minutes each."[3] She began to learn some European classical music at high school, but this was interrupted when she and the family moved back to Blackwell.[4]

Myers majored in music education at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas.[4] In her second year, she was invited to play at The Safari Room in Memphis, Tennessee.[4] This engagement, however, was very brief, as her musical repertoire was too limited.[4] After graduation, she moved to Chicago in 1963, where she taught music at an elementary school.[5] She also attended classes at Roosevelt University and worked with musicians such as Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. In 1966 she joined the AACM in Chicago, focusing on vocal compositions and arrangements. She was one of the performers at the AACM's second concert.[5] She recorded her first jazz album with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre in 1969. In the late 1960s, Myers added "Amina" to her name.[6]

In 1976 Myers relocated to New York City,[7] where she intensified her compositional work and expanded it into the realm of Off-Broadway productions. She also continued performing and recording as a pianist and organist. Around 1978 she began touring in Europe with the Lester Bowie Quintet and his New York Organ Ensemble.[7] In 1985 she joined Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.

Notable collaborations also include recordings with Bill Laswell, Marian McPartland, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Frank Lowe, Leroy Jenkins, Jim Pepper and Ray Anderson.

Discography

As leader

With Muhal Richard Abrams

With the Art Ensemble of Chicago

With Arthur Blythe

With Lester Bowie

With Frank Lowe

With Greg Osby

With Jim Pepper

  • Afro Indian Blues (recorded 1991, released 2006)

With Third Rail (James Blood Ulmer & Bill Laswell)

With Henry Threadgill

With James Blood Ulmer

References

  1. ↑ Allmusic biography
  2. 1 2 Lewis 2008, p. 125.
  3. ↑ Lewis 2008, p. 126.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Lewis 2008, p. 127.
  5. 1 2 Lewis 2008, p. 128.
  6. ↑ Lewis 2008, p. 165.
  7. 1 2 "Full length Bio: Amina Claudine Myers", Company of Heaven.

Bibliography

  • Lewis, George E. (2008). A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music. University of Chicago Press.
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