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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMYERS, Amina Claudine(b 21 March 1942, Blackwell AR) Singer, pianist; also plays organ, harmonica. She began formal piano training at age seven when she moved to Dallas (given a choice of staying in Blackwell or with her aunt and uncle in Dallas, she told Ludwig Van Trikt in a Cadence interview '94 that she choose Dallas because her relatives owned a grocery store and had an indoor toilet). She helped form a pre-teen gospel group, directed church choirs; attended Philander Smith College in Little Rock, studied European concert music, graduated with a BA in music education, and moved to Chicago, where she taught music in the public school systems for six years in the '60s. She joined the AACM in 1966 (see that entry) and began developing her own artistry, working with founder-member Muhal Richard Abrams. She went on the road with Sonny Stitt '70, worked for a year and a half with Gene Ammons, moved to NYC '76 and formed her own groups. Her debut album Poem For Piano '79 on Sweet Earth was a solo set of the piano music of Marion Brown, who had heard her on a Kalaparusha (Maurice McIntyre) album and asked her if she would do a recording of his compositions. She lived in Europe in the early '80s for a few years. Leo Records in London released Song For Mother E '79, a duet with percussionist Pheeroan akLaff (Mother E is a reference to her mother), then Salutes Bessie Smith '80, her best recording to date: five tunes from the Bessie Smith songbook along with two Amina originals ('The Blues, Straight To You' and 'African Blues'), accompanied by bassist Cecil McBee and drummer Jimmy Lovelace: no-nonsense blues deeply rooted in the gospel tradition. Duet '81 on Black Saint was a two-piano album with Muhal Richard Abrams; The Circle Of Time '83 on the same label was followed by two funk-oriented albums in the M-Base tradition: Jumping In The Sugar Bowl '84 and Country Girl '86 on Minor Music were similar to Cassandra Wilson's JMT recordings of the period; meanwhile she toured with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra '85. Her first major label deal resulted in Amina '87 and In Touch '89 on RCA Novus, unsatisfying poppish albums with little jazz content. Asked in the Cadence interview if it had been a positive experience, her response was, 'I will just say it was an experience and leave it at that. If you are on a major label, the concern is with airplay and sales.' She has not had a record contract since '90. She played organ on two Lester Bowie NY Organ Ensemble CDs on DIW '91, basically funk outings; later that year she appeared on Marian McPartland's radio programme Piano Jazz (the show later on a Jazz Alliance CD). |