Blues Forever

Blues Forever is an album by Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams

Muhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...

 released on the Italian Black Saint

Black Saint/Soul Note

Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian jazz independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz.-History:...

 label in 1982 and featuring performances of seven of Abrams compositions by an eleven member big band.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Ron Wynn awarded the album 4 stars stating "Although every arrangement doesn't click, the band successfully romps and stomps through enough cuts to show that the big band sound doesn't just mean "ghost" groups recreating dusty numbers from the '30s and '40s".

Track listing

1. "Ancient and Future Reflections" - 6:46
2. "Du King" (Dedicated to Duke Ellington
   Duke Ellington
   Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
   
   ) - 2:00
3. "Chambea" - 7:30
4. "Duet for One World" - 4:53
5. "Blues Forever" - 9:01
6. "Cluster for Many Worlds" - 5:02
7. "Quartet to Quartet" - 7:09

All compositions by Muhal Richard Abrams

• Recorded July 20, 21 & 27, 1981 at Barigozzi Studio, Milano

Personnel

• Muhal Richard Abrams
  Muhal Richard Abrams
  Muhal Richard Abrams is an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the Free jazz medium. Abrams compresses both contemporary and traditional ideas into lean, elegant pieces.- Biography :Abrams attended DuSable High School in Chicago...
  
   - piano, conductor
• Baikida Carroll
  Baikida Carroll
  Baikida Carroll is an American jazz trumpeter.Carroll studied at Southern Illinois University and at the Armed Forces School of Music early in his career. Following this he became a member of the Black Artists Group in St. Louis, where he directed their free jazz ensemble...
  
   - trumpet, flugelhorn
• Craig Harris
  Craig S. Harris (trombonist)
  Craig S. Harris is a Jazz trombonist and composer who has been a major figure in the jazz avant-garde movement since his stint with Sun Ra in 1976. Subsequently, Harris has worked with such notable jazz artists as Abdullah Ibrahim, David Murray, Lester Bowie, Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers, Muhal...
  
   - trombone
• Wallace Laroy McMillan - baratone saxophone, flute
• Jimmy Vass - alto saxophone, flute
• Eugene Ghee - tenor saxophone, clarinet
• Vincent Chancey
  Vincent Chancey
  Vincent Chancey is an American jazz hornist.Chancey, a French horn player, attended the Southern Illinois University School of Music and then studied under Julius Watkins in New York City...
  
   - french horn
• Howard Johnson
  Howard Johnson (jazz musician)
  Howard Lewis Johnson in Montgomery, Alabama, is an American jazz musician known mainly for his work on tuba and baritone saxophone, although he also plays the bass clarinet, trumpet and other reed instruments....
  
   - tuba, baritone saxophone
• Jean-Paul Bourelly
  Jean-Paul Bourelly
  Jean-Paul Bourelly is an American jazz fusion and blues rock guitarist.Bourelly was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, his mother American and his father an immigrant from Haiti. Bourelly sang at the Lyric Opera when he was ten years old and learned piano and drums, picking up guitar by age...
  
   - guitar
• Michael Logan - bass
• Andrew Cyrille
  Andrew Cyrille
  Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
  
  - drums