Muhal Richard Abrams: Sound Dance (Pi Recordings)

THERE’S no doubt that due to his incessant organising and music-making, Muhal Richard Abrams has been one of the most powerfully significant figures in jazz development over the last half century, and one who despite his modesty and low profile has contributed a vitally original and influential seam to the music.

Born in Chicago in 1930, Abrams was mainly self-taught, his piano playing originally stimulated by the bop brilliance of Bud Powell. Always an experimenter, he formed the briefly lived Experimental Band in 1961, and in 1965 alongside other musical risk-takers of the Windy City, he formed and became the first president of the groundbreaking Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) which emphasised musical self-reliance, creative innovation and educating and mobilising the Chicago community in support of its new music.