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Los Angeles-based pianist Horace Tapscott (1934) was something of a moral leader for California's free-jazz community.
In 1959 he established the multimedia Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and in
1961 he helped create the Underground Musicians' Association (UGMA), but
nothing surfaced on record.
A quintet featuring alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe recorded the four jams of
The Giant Is Awakened (april 1969), also known as West Coast Hot.
The solo piano album Songs of the Unsung (february 1978), full of covers,
was hardly representative of his compositional genius or his rhythmically eccentric style.
The Arkestra (two pianos, six reeds, two trombones, tuba, cello, two basses and two percussionists) was finally documented on Flight 17 (april 1978), that includes no Tapscott compositions, and The Call (april 1978), mostly composed by Tapscott.
Besides a trio with bassist Art Davis and drummer Roy Haynes,
In New York (january 1979), and the other trios of
Autumn Colors (may 1980),
and Dissent or Descent (1984),
and the duo with a drummer of At the Crossroads (1980),
his art was best represented on the two original pieces of
Dial B for Barbara (1981) for a sextet (piano, trumpet, two saxophones, bass and drums).
The most ambitious composition of the era was the 29-minute solo piano fantasia Struggle X An Afro-American Dream, documented on Sessions 2 (november 1982).
Towards the end of his life, Tapscott managed to record Aiee The Phantom (june 1995) for a trumpet-saxophone quintet with bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, that contained the 16-minute Mothership, and
Thoughts of Dar es Salam (july 1996) for another trio.
Tapscott died in 1999.
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