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47-548: Healing Force is an album by American jazz pianist Don Pullen recorded in 1976 for the Italian Black Saint label. The Allmusic review awarded the album 4 stars. Don Pullen Pullen was and raised in Roanoke , Virginia , United States. Growing up in a musical family, he learned the piano at an early age. A graduate of Lucy Addison High School , Pullen played in the school's band. He played with

94-673: A Time. In 1976, Adams began to performing on and off with pianist McCoy Tyner until the late 1980s. The following year, George performed with trumpeter Marvin Hannibal Peterson at the Antibes Jazz Festival in Antibes, France. He appeared on Tyner's album The Greeting in 1978, alongside bassist Charles Fambrough and drummer Sonship. In 1979, Adams and Pullen began to co-lead a quartet with Dannie Richmond and bassist Cameron Brown. In December 1979, George recorded

141-565: A Wonderful World", "Moon River", and "Ol' Man River." 1988 also saw the release of the Phalanx album, In Touch. He died in New York at the age of 52 after an illness. He had been experiencing breathing difficulties for the last year. Adams and Don Pullen shared a musical vision and their quartet straddled the range from R&B to the avant-garde . (The quartet was sometimes known as the "George Adams–Don Pullen Quartet", and sometimes as

188-617: A brief audition he took over the vacant piano chair in the Mingus group; when a tenor saxophone player was needed, Pullen recommended George Adams ; subsequently, Dannie Richmond returned on drums; these men, together with Jack Walrath on trumpet, formed the last great Mingus group. Being part of the Mingus group and appearing at many concerts and on three Mingus studio recordings, Mingus Moves (1973), Changes One and Changes Two (both 1974), gave great exposure to Pullen's playing and helped to persuade audiences and critics that Pullen

235-446: A different take on the bridge. The unison line of Adams and Scofield gives the overall melodic stance of the song more body and power. During his solo, Adams shadows Pullen's "sheets of sound" solo by performing with the same bravado and style. The addition of Scofield adds more of a foundation for George to work off of with the outcome being an even more confident melodic statement. The following year, Adams and Hannibal Peterson recorded

282-434: A form of music that combined rhythm and blues with jazz. In 1968, he decided to expand his career and move to New York City to participate in the city's growing jazz scene. A year later, George Adams toured with Roy Haynes, playing with him until 1973. Shortly after, he performed with Art Blakey , before joining Charles Mingus ' band. His partnership with Mingus lasted until 1976. George Adams' first appearance with Mingus

329-530: A member of the Mingus Dynasty at the Village Vanguard. In April 1985, Adams and Pullen recorded the album Live at Montmartre , but it wasn't released until 2000, and featured a guest appearance by guitarist John Scofield. The group is quite noteworthy on the song Well, I Guess We'll Never Know. After a brief introduction from Richmond, the ensemble goes into a variation of Rhythm Changes with

376-401: A new element to his playing and his music with the formation of his African Brazilian Connection ("ABC"). This featured Carlos Ward (alto sax), Nilson Matta (bass), Guilherme Franco and Mor Thiam (percussion) in a group which mixed African and Latin rhythms with jazz. Their first album, Kele Mou Bana , was released in 1991. Their second, but very different, album of 1993, Ode To Life ,

423-776: A piece to him on his CD, Paired Down, Vol. I ( Justin Time Records , 1996), entitled "For Don". In 2005, Mosaic Records issued a set of four long-unavailable Blue Note recordings: Breakthrough and Song Everlasting by the Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet, and New Beginning and Random Thoughts by Pullen's own trio. Also, his songs hit big screen movies, such as "Big Alice" in The Preacher's Wife and "Once Upon A Time" in Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored . With George Adams With

470-556: A strident motif. He continues to utilize several different textures throughout the song, such as multiphonics, blues riffs and phrased melodic devices. The result of all this is a performance that includes a multitude of saxophone history into four and a half minutes. In 1980, Adams and Dannie Richmond recorded the album Hand to Hand for the Soul Note label. The album featured trombonist Jimmy Knepper, pianist Hugh Lawson and bassist Mike Richmond. In August 1980, Adams and Pullen recorded

517-530: A working relationship with Gil Evans that lasted until 1978 that same year. Adams' first appearance with Evans was on his album The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix , which was dedicated to the compositional efforts of rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix. The album features orchestral versions of songs such as Angel, Castles Made of Sand and Voodoo Child. George Adams continued to record with Gil Evans throughout 1975 by contributing to his album There Comes

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564-674: The Art Ensemble of Chicago With Hamiet Bluiett With Roy Brooks With Jane Bunnett With Beaver Harris With Billy Hart With Giuseppi Logan With Cecil McBee With Marcello Melis With Charles Mingus With Charles Mingus' Dynasty With David Murray With Sunny Murray With Maceo Parker With Ivo Perelman With Dannie Richmond With Sam Rivers With Roots With John Scofield With Jack Walrath With Charles Williams George Adams (musician) George Rufus Adams (April 29, 1940 – November 14, 1992)

611-620: The Hammond organ to extend his opportunities for work, transferring elements of his individual piano style to this instrument. During the remainder of the 1960s and early 1970s, he played with his own organ trio in clubs and bars, worked as a self-taught arranger for record companies, and accompanied various singers including Arthur Prysock , Irene Reid , Ruth Brown , Jimmy Rushing and Nina Simone . In 1972, Pullen briefly appeared with Art Blakey 's Jazz Messengers . Pullen often polarized critics and suffered from two undeserved allegations:

658-471: The "Don Pullen–George Adams Quartet".) After Adams' death, Pullen dedicated to his memory the 1993 CD Ode To Life , recorded by his African-Brazilian Connection, and in particular the ballad "Ah George, We Hardly Knew Ya". One of Adams' last recordings was America on the Blue Note label. This album consists of classic American songs like " Tennessee Waltz ", " You Are My Sunshine " and " Take Me Out to

705-781: The George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet recordings, but his compositions which were recorded by others were usually performed by those who had known and worked with him. Pullen's piano technique can be seen on the DVDs Mingus At Montreux 1975 and Roots Salutes The Saxophones . Several musicians wrote songs as personal tributes to Pullen's memory. David Murray and D. D. Jackson recorded an album, Long Goodbye: A Tribute to Don Pullen (1998), dedicated to Pullen and featuring his compositions. Others who wrote tributes include Jane Bunnett , Cameron Brown and Myra Melford . D.D. Jackson also dedicated

752-463: The acclaimed Evidence Of Things Unseen (1983) and Plays Monk (1984), then with a quintet, another highly praised recording The Sixth Sense (1985) on Black Saint. He also recorded with (alphabetically) Hamiet Bluiett; Roy Brooks, the drummer who introduced him to Mingus; Jane Bunnett; Kip Hanrahan; Beaver Harris ; Marcello Melis; and David Murray . All Pullen's future recordings under his own name were for Blue Note. On 16 December 1988 he went into

799-570: The age of eleven and switched to tenor saxophone in high school. Later on, he went study at the Clark College and got lessons on flute by Wayman Carver . As a teenager, George Adams frequently gained performance experience by playing with local R&B bands. In 1961, he accompanied singer Sam Cooke on a tour. At this point, Adams was based out of Cleveland where he spent a great deal of time studying and working with organ trios alongside pianist and organist, Bill Doggett . The two men played

846-505: The album Earth Beams. The ensemble demonstrated its best on the album's title track. Adams' immediate performance provides a great deal of melodic presence throughout the song. George's deep resonance helps to thicken the harmonic quality of the song. The fundamentals of the ensemble are also anchored perfectly by Dannie Richmond. In 1983, Adams started to expand on his career as a sideman by recording with trombonist Craig Harris on his album Black Bone. The following year, George recorded as

893-453: The album More Sightings for the Enja label. In 1987, George recorded the album Where Were You? with the group Orange Then Blue. It featured trumpeter Ken Cervenka, trombonist Peter Cirelli and French horn player Gunther Schuller, amongst others. He then became a member of the band Phalanx that same year, alongside drummer Rashied Ali, bassist Sirone and guitarist James Blood Ulmer and released

940-484: The album Paradise Space Shuttle with his personal quintet that featured pianist Ron Burton, drummer Al Foster, bassist Don Pate and percussionist Azzedin Weston. Adams' contributions to his ensemble were best heard on Paradise Space Shuttle 's title track. After a brief introduction, he enters the arrangement playing a disjointed and primal melody. He then plays a more traditional bebop figure before supplementing it with

987-481: The album, Original Phalanx. In 1988, Richmond died and the Adams/Pullen group briefly replaced him with drummer Lewis Nash, then disbanded. Adams then formed a new quartet with Cameron Brown, Hugh Lawson and drummer Gregory Hutchinson. The same year, George recorded an album of ballads and spirituals entitled Nightingale , alongside Lawson, Sirone and drummer Victor Lewis. The album features renditions of "What

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1034-609: The assassination of African-American activist Malcolm X , Pullen had written a suite dedicated to Malcolm X's memory, but this required more instrumental resources than a normal-sized jazz group provides, and only the piano parts of this were ever recorded. Except for the Plays Monk album, Pullen almost exclusively featured his own compositions on his own recordings, until his time with the African Brazilian Connection. His compositions are well represented on

1081-442: The assertion of Taylor's influence continued to haunt Pullen to the end of Pullen's life, and persists even to this day. Pullen appeared on no more commercial recordings until 1971 and 1972, when he played organ on three recordings by altoist Charles Williams , one being issued under the title of a Pullen composition, "Trees And Grass And Things". In 1973 drummer Roy Brooks introduced Pullen to bassist Charles Mingus , and after

1128-445: The band, feeling the music had diverged too far from Mingus' intentions. In late 1979 Pullen, Adams, and Richmond were booked to play as a quartet for a European tour of a few weeks' duration. Pullen invited Cameron Brown to join them on bass. They were asked to bill themselves as a "Mingus group", but not wanting to be identified as mere copyists, they declined and performed as the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet. They played music that

1175-473: The choir in his local church and was heavily influenced by his cousin, Clyde "Fats" Wright, who was a professional jazz pianist. He took some lessons in classical piano and knew little of jazz. At this time, he was mainly aware of church music and the blues. Pullen left Roanoke for Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina to study for a medical career, but soon he realized that his true vocation

1222-449: The first (despite his grounding in the church and blues) that he was purely a free jazz player and thus unemployable in any other context; the second that he had been heavily influenced by Cecil Taylor or was a clone of Taylor, to whose playing Pullen's own bore a superficial resemblance. Pullen strenuously denied that he had any link with Taylor, stating that his own style had been developed in isolation before he ever heard of Taylor. But

1269-406: The group Roots from its inception. Pullen's final project was a work combining the sounds of his African Brazilian Connection (extended by Joseph Bowie on trombone) with a choir and drums of Native Americans . Despite his Native American background (his paternal grandmother was half-Indian, probably Cherokee) he began to experiment with American Indian music as late as July 1992. In 1994 Pullen

1316-463: The humorous "Big Alice" (for an imaginary fan), "Double Arc Jake" (for his son Jake and Rahsaan Roland Kirk ), the passionate "Ode To Life" (for a friend), and the aforementioned lament, "Ah George We Hardly Knew Ya". Occasionally he wrote pieces with a religious feeling, such as "Gratitude" and "Healing Force", or to highlight the plight of African-Americans, such as "Warriors", "Silence = Death", and "Endangered Species: African American Youth". Following

1363-574: The most exciting groups ever seen, the music recorded for the Blue Note sessions was at first deemed "smoother" than on their European recordings, and took time to achieve the same high reputation. After the death of Dannie Richmond the quartet fulfilled their remaining contracted engagements with drummer Lewis Nash and then disbanded in mid-1988. Their music, usually original compositions by Pullen, Adams and Richmond, had ranged from blues , through ballads, to post-bop and avant-garde. The ability of

1410-471: The opportunity to each make a recording under his own name. All three collaborated in the others' recordings. In the same year, Pullen made two further solo recordings in Italy, Five To Go (Horo) and Healing Force ( Black Saint ), the latter being received with great acclaim. He became part of the regular seasonal tours of American musicians to Europe, playing in the avant-garde or free mode. In 1977, Pullen

1457-546: The players to encompass all these areas, often within one composition, removed any sameness or sterility from the quartet format. Except for the early recordings on the vanished Horo label, their European recordings on Soulnote and Timeless remained frequently available, unlike those made for Blue Note. During the life of the Quartet, Pullen also made a duo recording with George Adams, Melodic Excursions (1982), and made three recordings under his own name, two further solo albums,

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1504-523: The quartet felt they were not well enough known in America, so in 1986 they signed to record for Blue Note Records , for which they recorded Breakthrough (1986) and Song Everlasting (1987). Beginning the Blue Note contract with great hope of increased fame and success, as shown by the title of the first album, they became disillusioned by the poor availability of the two records. Although the power of their live concerts maintained their reputation as one of

1551-538: The result as two LPs. These were the first records to bear Pullen's name, second to Graves'. Although not greatly known in the United States, these avant-garde albums were well received in Europe, most copies being sold there. In 2020, Corbett vs. Dempsey released the contents of both albums on a CD titled The Complete Yale Concert, 1966 . Finding little money in playing avant-garde jazz , Pullen began to play

1598-444: The startling Warriors with its strong 30-minute title track, have remained in the catalogues over the years. Meanwhile, he recorded with groups led by Billy Hart (drums), Hamiet Bluiett (baritone sax), Cecil McBee (bass), Sunny Murray (drums) and Marcello Melis (bass). On the formation of the first Mingus Dynasty band Pullen occupied the piano chair and appeared on their recording Chair In The Sky in 1979, but he soon left

1645-422: The studio with Gary Peacock (bass) and Tony Williams (drums) to make his first trio album New Beginnings , which astonished even those familiar with his work and became widely regarded as one of the finest trio albums ever recorded. He followed this in 1990 with another trio album, Random Thoughts , in somewhat lighter mood, this time with James Genus (bass) and Lewis Nash (drums). In late 1990 Pullen added

1692-674: Was a tribute to George Adams, who had died on November 14, 1992, containing Pullen's heartfelt and moving composition in Adams' memory, "Ah George We Hardly Knew Ya". A third album, Live...Again , recorded in July 1993 at the Montreux Jazz Festival , was not released until 1995. This featured "Ah George..." and other songs from their previous albums, in somewhat extended versions. Pullen achieved more popular and commercial success with this group than with any other. In 1993 Ode To Life

1739-498: Was an American jazz musician who played tenor saxophone , flute and bass clarinet . He is best known for his work with Charles Mingus , Gil Evans , Roy Haynes and in the quartet he co-led with pianist Don Pullen , featuring bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Dannie Richmond . He was also known for his idiosyncratic singing. George Adams was born in Covington, Georgia , on April 29, 1940. He first started playing piano at

1786-476: Was diagnosed with lymphoma . He continued to put great physical effort into completing the composition. In early March 1995 he played on his final recording, Sacred Common Ground (with the Chief Cliff Singers, Kootenai Indians from Elmo, Montana ), a few weeks away from his death, returning to his heritage of the blues and the church. Unable to play at the live premiere, his place at the piano

1833-564: Was fifth on the U.S. Billboard Top Jazz Album chart. During the last few years of his life, Pullen toured with his trio, with his African Brazilian Connection, and as a solo artist, but did not release any more solo records. As a sideman and session musician , he left his mark with a variety of noteworthy artists, including (alphabetically) Jane Bunnett (notably their duo album New York Duets ), Bill Cosby , Kip Hanrahan , David Murray's 1991 Shakill's Warrior , Maceo Parker , Ivo Perelman and Jack Walrath . He also toured and recorded with

1880-538: Was more structured than Pullen normally favored, but the immediate rapport among them led to the group touring the world with unchanged personnel until the death of Richmond in early 1988. From very early in their first tour in 1979, and until 1985, the quartet made a dozen recordings for European labels, both in the studio and in concert. Of these, Earth Beams (1980), Live At The Village Vanguard (1983) and Decisions (1984) provide typically fine examples of their work at that period. Although highly regarded in Europe,

1927-444: Was music. After playing with local musicians and being exposed for the first time to albums of the major jazz musicians and composers, he abandoned his medical studies. He set out to make a career in music, desirous of playing like Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy . In 1964, he went to Chicago , Illinois , for a few weeks, where he encountered Muhal Richard Abrams ' philosophy of making music. He then headed for New York, where he

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1974-471: Was not just a free jazz player. Two of his own compositions, "Newcomer" and "Big Alice", were recorded on the Mingus Moves session, but "Big Alice" was not released until a CD reissue many years later. However, musical disagreements with Mingus caused Pullen to leave the group in 1975. Pullen had always played piano with bass and drums behind him, feeling more comfortable this way, but in early 1975 he

2021-454: Was on Mingus Moves with Ronald Hampton, Dannie Richmond, and Don Pullen in 1973. Later on, Adams went to perform in Mingus at Carnegie Hall, Changes One and Changes Two. He also appeared on Mingus Moves (1973) and other albums. 1975, while touring Europe with Mingus, he made his first recordings under his own name with Don Pullen, Dannie Richmond and bassist David Williams. Adams also began

2068-640: Was persuaded to play a solo concert in Toronto. This was recorded as Solo Piano Album ( Sackville ) and became the first record issued under Pullen's name alone. Among other pieces, it contains "Sweet (Suite) Malcolm", declared a masterpiece by Cameron Brown , Pullen's long time associate of later years. There was now growing awareness of Pullen's abilities, but it was the European recording companies that were prepared to preserve them. In 1975 an Italian record company gave Pullen, George Adams, and Dannie Richmond

2115-414: Was signed by a major American record company, Atlantic Records . This led to two records, the atypical Tomorrow's Promises and the live Montreux Concert . But after these, Pullen's association with Atlantic was terminated and he returned to European companies for three recordings under his own name or in partnership: Warriors and Milano Strut in 1978, and The Magic Triangle in 1979. These, especially

2162-496: Was soon introduced to avant-garde saxophonist Giuseppi Logan , who invited Pullen to play piano on his two albums, Giuseppi Logan (ESP, October 1964) and More (ESP, May 1965), both exercises in structured free playing. Subsequently, Pullen and Milford Graves formed a duo. Their concert at Yale University in May 1966 was recorded. They formed their own independent SRP record label (standing for "Self Reliance Project" ) to publish

2209-409: Was taken by D.D. Jackson , with whom Pullen discussed the music from his hospital bed shortly before his death. He died on April 22, 1995, of lymphoma . Pullen composed many pieces, which often were portraits or memories of people he knew. All were published by his own company, Andredon, but because he for a long time suffered from neglect musically, so did many of his compositions. His best known are

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