Joseph Jarman
(b. September 14, 1937 in Pine Bluff, Arkansas), is a jazz musician, composer and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He is perhaps best known as one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
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JOSEPH JARMAN TICKETS
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Biography
Jarman grew up in
Chicago, Illinois. At
DuSable High School he studied
drums with
Walter Dyett, switching to
saxophone and
clarinet when he joined the
United States Army after graduation.
[1] During his time there, he was part of the
11th Airborne Division Band for a year.
[2]
The AACM and his solo band
After he was discharged from the army in 1958, Jarman attended Wilson Junior College, where he met
bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut and saxophonists
Roscoe Mitchell,
Henry Threadgill, and
Anthony Braxton. These men would often perform long jam sessions at the suggestion of their professor Richard Wang (now with
Illinois University). Mitchell introduced Jarman to
pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, and Jarman, Mitchell, and Maghostut joined Abrams' Experimental Band, a private, non-performing ensemble, when that group was founded in 1961. The same group of musicians continued to play together in a variety of configurations, and went on to found the
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1965, along with
Fred Anderson and
Phil Cohran.
Jarman's solo recording career began at this time with two releases on the
Delmark Label which included non-conforming recording methods, such as spoken word and "little instruments", the latter a technique that Jarman and Mitchell would use to effectiveness in the Art Ensemble.
The band he fronted and used during these recordings between 1966 and 1968 included
Charles Clark (
bass),
Christopher Gaddy (
piano) and
Thurman Barker (
drums). However, in 1969 Clark and Gaddy both passed away and Jarman disbanded his group.
The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Equal Interest
Shortly after his bandmates Clark and Gaddy died in 1969, Jarman joined Mitchell, Maghostut and
Lester Bowie (
trumpet) in the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in 1967; the group would be later rounded out with the addition of
Don Moye on drums. This band eventually became known as the
Art Ensemble of Chicago (AECO). The group was known for being costumed on stage for different reasons; Jarman wore facepaint and has mentioned that it "was sort of the shamanistic image coming from various cultures."
[3] The group moved to Paris in 1969 and lived there for many years in a commune that included
Steve McCall, the great drummer who went on the form the jazz trio
Air with Threadgill and bassist
Fred Hopkins. Moving back to Chicago in the 1970s,
Jarman lived in a musicians' building in
Hyde Park, in Chicago, with
Malachi Favors as his roommate. In 1983, he moved to
Brooklyn, New York from Chicago and has lived there since that time.
Jarman stayed with the Ensemble until 1993, when he left the group to focus on his spiritual practice, "a cleansing process" as he stated.
The move wasn’t announced at first, leading fans to speculate about Jarman’s health when he didn’t appear on stage for an AECO
Thanksgiving weekend show at the
Knitting Factory in 1994.
[4] He didn't have much to do with music until 1996 when in January he recorded two CDs, The
Scott Fields Ensembles'
48 Motives
and the concert, duo CD
Connecting Spirits
with Marilyn Crispell, which Fields produced. Later in the year his friend and fellow AACM peer
Leroy Jenkins asked him to join a
trio with him and
Myra Melford in Chicago, which would eventually be called Equal Interest.
Looking back on those three years without music, Jarman commented that "I didn't realize it, but it actually depressed me in many ways."
He was then commissioned to write a
chamber orchestra piece, which led him to the realization of how to incorporate his Buddhist teachings into his music. Jarman returned to the AECO in January 2003 and continues to be a member in the band to this day as well as performing as part of Equal Interest.
[5]
Along with the saxophone and clarinet, Jarman also plays (and has recorded on) nearly every member of the
woodwind family, as well as a wide variety of
percussion instruments. Aside from his work with relatively traditional jazz lineups, he has composed for larger orchestras and created
multimedia pieces for musicians and dancers.
Spirituality
Jarman is most widely known for his musical accomplishments, but he has also been involved in the practice of
Zen Buddhism and
aikido. He began studying in 1990 and visited various
monasteries in
Eastern Asia, including
Higashi Honganji Honzon in
Kyoto, Japan. A few years later, he opened his own aikido
dojo/
zendo, Jikishinkan ("direct mind training hall")
, in
Brooklyn, New York.
He is currently a
Jodo Shinshu priest, and holds a rank of godan (fifth degree black belt) in aikido.
Selected discography
- 1966 - Song For
(Delmark)
- 1968 - As If It Were The Seasons
(Delmark)
- 1977 - Egwu-Anwo
(India Navigation) with Don Moye
- 1979 - Joseph Jarman/Don Moye Trio: Black Paladins
(Black Saint) with Johnny Dyani
- 1981 - Joseph Jarman/Don Moye Quartet: Earth Passage / Density
(Black Saint)
- 1996 - Connecting Spirits
(Music & Arts) with Marilyn Crispell
- 1996 - Pachinko Dream Track 10
(Music & Arts)
- 1997 - Bright Moments - Return of the Lost Tribe
(Delmark) with Malachi Favors, Kahil El'Zabar
References
- Joseph Jarman biography at Allmusic
- A Fireside Chat with Joseph Jarman
- Joseph Jarman
- Joseph Jarman Interview
- Joseph Jarman