New York Art Quartet

The New York Art Quartet was a free jazz ensemble originally made up of saxophonist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, drummer Milford Graves and bassist Lewis Worrell. Worrell was later replaced by various other bassists, including Don Moore, Reggie Workman and Finn Von Eyben.

In 1962, Tchicai and Rudd were both playing with two groups: the New York Contemporary Five and Bill Dixon’s group with Archie Shepp and drummer Dennis Charles.[1] Two years later, they played together on New York Eye and Ear Control along with Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Gary Peacock, and Sunny Murray, and also participated in the October Revolution in Jazz organized by Bill Dixon.[1] Rudd and Tchicai were introduced to drummer Milford Graves by saxophonist Giuseppi Logan, and Graves "wound up playing with them for half an hour, astonishing Rudd and Tchicai, who promptly invited him to join what became The New York Art Quartet."[2] After adding bassist Lewis Worrell, the group first recorded in 1964 as part of ESP Disk's original roster of jazz artists.[3]

In June 1999, the group reformed for a performance at the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival, opening for Sonic Youth. Amiri Baraka, whose poem "Black Dada Nihlismus" was included on their debut album 35 years earlier, also appeared.[4] The group recorded 35th Reunion with bassist Reggie Workman at that time.[5]

David Toop described the group's signature sound as "deliberately ragged, bleary themes tumbling out in spasms, notes tailing away as if lost to daydream, the music so open that total collapse seems perpetually imminent."[6]

A documentary on the NYAQ, entitled The Breath Courses Through Us, was released in 2013 by director Alan Roth.