Amina Claudine Myers

Amina Claudine Myers is a veteran jazz vocalist as well as a virtuoso pianist and organist who blends African-American roots music with the avant-garde. For her upcoming concert in Prague - her first in the city - she'll be performing on piano and Hammond B3 organ with her trio.

Myers was born in Arkansas and grew up in a hamlet called Blackwell, which had a population of about 250. While she was raised on and remains strongly influenced by Southern gospel, she claims that the natural sounds of the countryside and her farm also had a tremendous influence on her music: The crickets, crows, roosters, bees, cows and their cowbells, the pattering of chickens' feet and the whistle of the nightly evening train.

Myers' musical career began at 7 years old, when she started singing in her school's gospel choir. Later, she studied concert music and music education at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she graduated in the early 1960s. She soon moved to Chicago to teach music and began playing with the saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons.

In the mid-'60s, Myers joined the AACM (Association of Creative Musicians, Inc.) in Chicago, as part of a first wave of members including Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and the future members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell and others) - all of whom have gone on to become internationally known leaders in free jazz. Myers taught and developed her own music during this period, focusing on vocal composition and arrangement, and recorded her first album in 1969 with free jazz saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre.

In the mid-1970s, Myers relocated to New York City, where she continued to write her own compositions and also began working on productions Off-Broadway. Since then, she has gone back and forth from jazz recordings to musical productions, and has recorded as a pianist and organist with Lester Bowie, Muhal Richard Abrams, Bill Laswell, Archie Shepp, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and others. In the mid-'80s, she joined Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, recording on their album Dream Keeper, which was voted "best jazz album" by Downbeat.

Myers' music differs dramatically from her counterparts like Braxton or Threadgill, foremost because of its gospel roots and playful themes. For instance, in one of Myers' best-known tunes, "Jumping in the Sugar Bowl," she repeats the phrase in the title over and over, adding "jump, jump, jump," reminiscent of children jumping rope. Myers' voice on the track is accompanied by a buzzing bass line, a slow percussive exploration and of course Myers' piano, and the tune slowly builds into a romping instrumental love triangle.

Myers loves to sing the blues, but she also sings - passionately - about love. These days, her love songs only have hints of her earlier avant-garde period; her most obvious musical influences go further back to the blues, gospel and the spirituals of African American vocalists from Dinah Washington to Bessie Smith. Amina Claudine Myers Salutes Bessie Smith, released in 1980, is among Myers' most popular recordings, and features a riveting 15-minute rendition of Smith's "African Blues."

"I try to portray the feeling of what the song is about. I try to put that feeling across. I try to paint pictures, make it visual," she has said.

There is a great deal of joy and spirituality in Myers' music, but there is heartbreak as well. Her jazz influences range from modal to funk and avant-garde, but these are never the foremost aspects of her songs. What comes out most in the best of Myers' music is her own inimitable sound.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com