Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre

[Pim]

I found this beautiful documentary about this saxophonist, who always has been a bit underrated. Now he plays in the subway. Does anyone know if the introducing solo piece is ever issued on cd?

If the video does not work you probably have to switch to the other media player on the website. The button is in the right under the video.

Worth watching! Maybe some thoughts on this saxophonist?

[clifford_thornton]

I see him playing in Union Square quite often. He fumbles a bit sometimes but the tone is still there. Have had some interesting conversations with him. Personal problems have definitely taken their toll, but he's still with us and trying to get through it all.

The LPs on Delmark and his late '70s/early '80s albums on Baystate, Trio/CMC, Kharma, Black Saint and Cadence are all good. I wasn't super into a more recent set of CDs (trios with tuba and percussion), though my ears might just not have been "there." He recorded with Allen Lowe not too long ago (who can probably share more anecdotes). Anyway, I wish him well and hope that he can get some work and a little footing in the years to come.

[Chuck Nessa]

First met him in '66. An old friend.

[Larry Kart]

First met him in '66. An old friend.

Vivid memories of how he played back then. Remember in particular a session in the living room of the house in Hyde Park I then shared with drummer Doug Mitchell that paired Kalaparusha and the late tenorman Fred Schwartz, and a time that he and Roscoe Mitchell sat in at a gig that drummer Gerald Donovan (Ajaramu) and keyboardist Amina Claudine Myers had at a bar on Stony Island Ave. Answering an audience request for "Happy Birthday," Kalaparusha and Roscoe improvised on the piece with much seriousness and intensity for maybe 20 minutes. A very Roscoe-like thing to do, but Kalaparusha was into it all the way.

[Pim]

I'm glad I found this forum. It's fantastic to hear these kind of stories. People on this forum that have met and seen the musicians I love. I must confess: I'm very jealous of you all I was born in 1990 in The Netherlands, so most of the legends I like passed away before I even walked this earth. And most of the legends live overseas. I would almost buy me a ticket to New York to meet Kalaparusha, just to talk with him. In an environment like this in Holland, you got the feeling that all the import things in jazz happen(ed) elsewhere and in another time.

Though i'm still proud to say that I have seen Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, David Murray, Charles Gayle, Cecil Taylor, Rashied Ali, Peter Brotzmann, Hamid Drake to name a few