Muhal Richard Abrams: The Individual Principle

by Ted Panken 8/1/2010

An Exclusive Online Extra

I think my generation clearly heard the effect that the AACM and Muhal had on Steve Coleman
and Greg Osby, who played with Muhal, Jason Moran added. We took some of that energy into
the late 90s, and it continues on to today. He defines that free thinking that most jazz musicians
say they want to have.

Both Lewis and Moran cite the methodologies of Joseph Schillingerwhose textbooks
Abrams pored over during set breaks on late-50s gigs in Chicagoas a key component of
Abrams pedagogy. It helped me break the mold of sitting at a piano and thinking what
sounds pleasing to my ear, and instead be able to compose away from the instrumentto
almost create a different version of yourself, Moran said.
Schillinger analyzed music as raw material, and learning the possibilities gives you an
analytical basis to create anything you want, Abrams said. Its basic and brilliant. But I
dont want to be accused of being driven by what I learned from Schillinger. I am the sum
product of the study of a lot of things. This was manifest at the January 2010 NEA Jazz
Masters concert at Rose Theater, when the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, encountering
an Abrams opus for the first time, offered a well-wrought performance of 2000 Plus The
Twelfth Step, originally composed for the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. As the 15-minute work
unfolded, one thought less of the predispositional differences between Abrams and Wynton
Marsalis, and instead pondered Abrams 1977 remark: A lot of people will pick up on the
[AACMs] example and do very well with it who those people will be a couple of years
from now, who knows? Indeed, it seems eminently reasonable to discern affinities both in
the scope of their compositional interests and their mutual insistence on constructing an
institutional superstructure strong enough to withstand the vagaries of the music
marketplace.
When asked to comment, Abrams said, Its two different setups, but both very valid.
Theres no real underwriting for the music of the streets. Never was. Its very important for
an entity to maintain a structure in which work can be expressed to the public, whatever
approach or style they use. For the AACM, he continued, the organizational structure was
necessary to the extent that we were involved in the business of music. But it did not
supersede or overshadow the central idea, which was to allow the individuals within the
group a forum to express their own particular worlds. There was no hierarchy. Everyone
was equal. As time has shown, every individual from that first wave of people came out as a
distinct personality in their own right.
If you want a house with 10,000 rooms, you dont complain because nobody has a house
with 10,000 rooms to give you. You build it yourself, and do it with proper respect for the
rest of humanity. Youre busy working at what you say you are aboutdoing it for yourself.
When you take a different way, people often get the impression that you are against
something else. That certainly wasnt true in our casewe never threw anything away.

I just go as far as the eye can see in all directions. Theres no finish to this stuff.

Muhal Richard Abrams: The Individual Principle

by Ted Panken 8/1/2010
An Exclusive Online Extra

Interesting, Muhal Richard Abrams said over the phone upon receiving the news of his election
to DownBeats Hall of Fame. After a pause, he said it again.

Arrangements were made to speak the following day, and, in conversation at the midtown
Manhattan highrise where he has lived since 1977, Abrams explained his laconic response
to the honor, bestowed on the heels of his selection as a 2010 NEA Jazz Master.
Well, why me? he said. There are so many worthy people. The only claim I make is that I
am a pianist-composer. He added: Im honored that people would want to honor me, and I
have no objection, because people have a right to make the decisions they arrive at.
It was noted that Abrams had communicated precisely the latter dictum 45 years ago at a
series of meetings on Chicagos South Side where the bylaws and aesthetic guideposts by
which the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) continues to
operate were debated and established.
Oh, in terms of individuals being free to be individuals, of course, Abrams said. It is a
basic principle of human respect.
Informed of Abrams reaction, George Lewis, the Case Professor of Music at Columbia
University, who painstakingly traced the contents of these gatherings in A Power Stronger
Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music(University of Chicago Press),
hollered a deep laugh. Why me? Are you kidding? Assured of the quotes accuracy,
Lewis, an AACM member since 1971, settled down. Thats Muhal for you, he said. Hes
not an ego guy. Originally, the book was supposed to be about him. He said, I think it
should be about the entire AACM.
Lewis then opined on his mentors Why me? query. Muhal transcends genres, categories
and the little dustups that often happen in the jazz world, he said. Hes his own person. He
spent his life reaching out to many musical constituencies. So it makes a lot of sense to
have him represent a new way of thinking about the whole idea of jazz. Muhals major
lesson was that youd better find your own path, and then, once you do, learn to be part of a
group of people that exchange knowledge amongst each other. He provides support for an
autodidact way of doing things.
I dont characterize myself as a teacher, Abrams remarked. Its my contention that one
teaches oneself. Of course, you pick up information from people whose paths you cross.
But Im mainly self-taughtI found it more satisfying to do it that way.

It is one of Abrams signal accomplishments to have been the prime mover in spawning a
collaborative infrastructure within which such AACM-trained composer-instrumentalists as
Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Leo Smith,
Amina Claudine Myers and himself could conceptualize and develop ideas. Another is his
own singular corpus, as documented on some 30 recordings that present a world in which
blues forms, postbop themes with jagged intervals and experimental pieces in which
improvising ensembles address text, sound and space coexist in the same breath with
through-scored symphonic works, solo piano music, string, saxophone and brass quartets,
and electronic music. His arsenal also includes formidable pianistic skills, heard recently on
Dramaturns, an improvised, transidiomatic duo with Lewis on Streaming (Pi)its one of
five performances on which Abrams, Lewis and Mitchell, grouped in duo and trio
configurations, draw upon an enormous lexicon of sounds while navigating the open
spaces from various angles.
Its a vintage collaboration, Abrams said of the project. Our collaborations date back to
Chicago, and the respect that transpires between us on the stage, the respect for the
improvised space that we use, is special. Of course, theyre virtuoso musicians, but Im
talking about silence and activity, when to play and when not to play, just from instinct and
feeling and respect.
Asked about influences, Abrams said, I find different ways of doing things by coming out of
the total music picture. His short list includes pianists James P. Johnson, Art Tatum, Earl
Hines, Bud Powell, Hank Jones and Herbie Nichols, who individualized the performance of
mainstream music and their own original music; Vladimir Horowitz and Chopins piano
music; the scores of Hale Smith, William Grant Still, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and
Scriabin, as well as Duke Ellington, Gerald Wilson and Thad Jones. So many great
masters, he said. Some influenced me less with their music than the consistency and level
of truth from practice thats in their stuff.
The influence of Abrams musical production radiates consequentially outside the AACM
circle. Vijay Iyer recalled drawing inspiration from Abrams small group albums Colors In
33rd and 1-OQA+19 (both on Black Saint).
Muhal was pushing the envelope in every direction, and that openness inspired me, Iyer
said. The approach was in keeping with the language of jazz, but also didnt limit itself in
any way; the sense was that any available method of putting sound together should be at
your disposal in any context.