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Joseph Jarman

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Joseph Jarman (1937 to 2019) was an American jazz musician, composer, poet and Buddhist priest. He was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and grew up in Chicago. At DuSable High School he had drum lessons from Walter Dyett. He switched to saxophone and clarinet when he joined the army, where he played for a year in the band of the 11th Airborne Division. After his discharge in 1958 he met, at Wilson Junior College, the bassist Malachi Favors and the saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton, among others.

Music and breakthrough

Mitchell introduced him to the pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, and in 1961 he took part in Abrams' Experimental Band. In 1965, together with Fred Anderson and Phil Cohran, they founded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, the AACM. His first records, from 1966 to 1968 on Delmark, already contained spoken word and small instruments, which later became characteristic of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He joined that group with Mitchell, Favors, the trumpeter Lester Bowie and later the drummer Don Moye. The group performed in costume, and Jarman wore face paint, a kind of shamanic imagery drawn from various cultures. In 1969 the group moved to Paris, where it lived for years in a commune.

Influence

Jarman stayed with the Art Ensemble until 1993, when he left to concentrate on his spiritual life. In 1983 he moved from Chicago to Brooklyn and lived there until his death. On his own albums, such as Song For from 1967 and As If It Were the Seasons from 1968, he shows that jazz can also be poetry, theatre and ritual.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to As If It Were the Seasons and notice the alternation of spoken word, silence and small sounds with expressive saxophone lines.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists