Amina Claudine Myers

Amina Claudine Myers
File:Amina Claudine Myers.jpg Amina Claudine Myers Photo: Bob Travis
Background information
Birth name	Amina Claudine Myers
Born	(1942-03-21) March 21, 1942 Blackwell, Arkansas United States
Genres	Jazz, Gospel
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, musical arranger
Years active	1969–present

Amina Claudine Myers (born March 21, 1942) is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and musical arranger.

Biography

Born in Blackwell, Arkansas (a small community on US 64 in western Conway County), Myers started singing and playing the piano and organ as a child in church choirs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas, where she grew up, and directed choirs at an early age. She graduated in concert music and music education at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas in the early 1960s. After graduation, she moved to Chicago, where she taught music, attended classes at Roosevelt University and worked with musicians such as Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. In 1966 she joined the AACM in Chicago, focusing on vocal compositions and arrangements, and recording her first jazz album with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre in 1969.

In 1976 Myers relocated to New York City, where she intensified her compositional work and expanded it into the realm of Off-Broadway productions. She also continued performing and recording as a pianist and organist. Around 1978 she began touring in Europe with the Lester Bowie Quintet and his New York Organ Ensemble. In 1985 she joined Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.

Notable collaborations also include recordings with Bill Laswell, Marian McPartland, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Frank Lowe, Leroy Jenkins, Jim Pepper and Ray Anderson.

Discography

As leader

• Poems for Piano: The Piano Music of Marion Brown (Sweet Earth, 1979)
• Song for Mother E with Pheeroan akLaff (Leo, 1980)
• Salutes Bessie Smith (Leo, 1980)
• The Circle of Time (Black Saint, 1983)
• Jumping in the Sugar Bowl (Minor Music, 1984)
• Country Girl (Minor Music, 1986)
• Amina (RCA/Novus, 1987)
• In Touch (RCA/Novus, 1989)
• Women In (E)Motion Festival (Tradition & Moderne, recorded 1988 released 2004)

Albums featured

With Muhal Richard Abrams

• Lifea Blinec (Arista Novus, 1978)
• Spihumonesty (Black Saint, 1979)
• Duet (Black Saint, 1981)

With the Art Ensemble of Chicago

• Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition (AECO, 1993)

With Arthur Blythe

• Blythe Spirit (Columbia, 1981)

With Lester Bowie

• African Children (Horo, 1978)
• The Fifth Power (Black Saint, 1978)
• The Organizer (DIW, 1991)
• Funky T. Cool T. (DIW, 1991)

With Frank Lowe

• Exotic Heartbreak (Soul Note, 1981)

With Greg Osby

• Season of Renewal (JMT, 1990)

With Jim Pepper

• Afro Indian Blues (recorded 1991, released 2006)

With Third Rail

• South Delta Space Age (1995)

With Henry Threadgill

• X-75 Volume 1 (1979)
• Subject to Change (1985)
• Song Out of My Trees (1994)

With James Blood Ulmer

• Blue Blood (2000)

External links

• AllMusic page for Myers
• Amina Claudine Myers at AACM
• (Italian) Amina Claudine Myers at centrojazztorino
• Amina Claudine Myers at German Wikipedia