{"title":"Don Pullen","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eDon Pullen grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, in a preacher's household, learned piano from a neighbour at ten, and spent his early performance years accompanying church vocalists before finding his way to Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy records in his teens. He studied at Johnson C. Smith University before abandoning medicine for music, moved to Chicago and worked with Muhal Richard Abrams, then settled in New York in the mid-1960s where he played organ for R\u0026amp;B groups behind Big Maybelle and Ruth Brown, recorded free duets with Milford Graves, and worked briefly with Nina Simone. The technique he was developing throughout all of this is one of the most recognisable in jazz piano history: a percussive, highly physical approach that used the backs of his hands, his knuckles and occasionally his elbows to generate dense tone clusters that sat somewhere between free jazz and gospel fury. Charles Mingus heard him in 1973, recommended by drummer Roy Brooks, and Pullen spent the next two years as the pianist in Mingus's final great quintet, recording \"Changes One\" and \"Changes Two\" (Atlantic, 1975) alongside George Adams, Jack Walrath and Dannie Richmond. When Mingus died in 1979, Pullen and Adams co-led a quartet with Richmond and bassist Cameron Brown that ran for nearly a decade, an inside-outside group that extended the Mingus energy into more overtly avant-garde territory. In 1979 Pullen also co-led the 360 Degree Music Experience with Beaver Harris, replacing Dave Burrell as the band's pianist. His Blue Note period began with \"New Beginnings\" (1988), a trio session with Gary Peacock and Tony Williams that demonstrated how much ground he could cover in a single evening, and continued through the African-Brazilian Connection, which fused jazz with traditional West African and Brazilian music until weeks before his death. He died on 22 April 1995, aged 53.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"don-pullen-new-beginnings-1989-us-blue-note-vinyl-lp","title":"Don Pullen - New Beginnings (1989 US Blue Note Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDon Pullen - \u003cem\u003eNew Beginnings\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1989 US Blue Note (B1-91785)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePullen had one of the most identifiable techniques in jazz piano. He played clusters with the backs of his hands and his knuckles, rolling them across the keys in a way that turned the instrument into something closer to percussion. What separated him from most players working in that territory was that he never abandoned the other side of his playing. He had come up studying with Muhal Richard Abrams in Chicago's Experimental Band, made his recording debut with Giuseppi Logan in 1964, cut free duets with Milford Graves, and then spent years playing organ behind Big Maybelle and Ruth Brown in R\u0026amp;B bands. He worked with Nina Simone at the start of the 1970s, joined Charles Mingus's group, and co-led a quartet with George Adams for most of the 1980s. All of that is audible here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Jana's Delight\" opens with a groove that would not frighten anyone, and then Pullen starts pulling at it. \"Once Upon a Time\" is the ballad. \"Warriors\" closes side A at the album's most intense. The title track on side B is the most immediately melodic thing here. \"At the Café Centrale\" follows, and then \"Reap the Whirlwind\" ends the record with the avant-garde flourishes fully unleashed. Peacock and Williams are perfectly cast for this. Neither is a timekeeper, both spent careers responding rather than accompanying, and Williams in particular pushes at Pullen throughout in a way that a more deferential drummer would not. Pullen went on to record \u003cem\u003eRandom Thoughts\u003c\/em\u003e in 1990 and then formed the African-Brazilian Connection, and his final project before his death in 1995 attempted to fuse jazz with traditional Native American music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the 1989 US pressing on Blue Note B1-91785.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blue Note","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43857450663995,"sku":null,"price":60.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_7861.jpg?v=1784864385"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/don-pullen.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}