Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams (born September 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Modern Creative and Free jazz mediums. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces. Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago. By 1946, he decided to enroll in music classes at Roosevelt University. “I didn’t get too much out of t... more

Muhal Richard Abrams (born September 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Modern Creative and Free jazz mediums. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces. Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago. By 1946, he decided to enroll in music classes at Roosevelt University. “I didn’t get too much out of that, because it wasn’t what I was hearing in the street,” he says. “I decided to study on my own. I don’t know why, but I’ve always had a natural ability to study and analyze things. I used that ability, not even knowing what it was (it was just a feeling) and started to read books. From there, I acquired a small spinet piano and started to teach myself how to play the instrument and read the notes - or, first of all, what key the music was in. It took time and a lot of sweat. But I analyzed it and before long I was playing with the musicians... less