Amina Claudine Myers

Biography

Born in Blackwell, Arkansas (a small community on US 64 in western Conway County), Myers started singing and playing the piano and organ as a child in church choirs in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas, where she grew up, and directed choirs at an early age. She graduated in concert music and music education at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas in the early 1960s. After graduation, she moved to Chicago, where she taught music, attended classes at Roosevelt University and worked with musicians such as Sonny Stitt and Gene Ammons. In 1966 she joined the AACM in Chicago, focusing on vocal compositions and arrangements, and recording her first jazz album with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre in 1969.

In 1976 Myers relocated to New York City, where she intensified her compositional work and expanded it into the realm of Off-Broadway productions. She also continued performing and recording as a pianist and organist. Around 1978 she began touring in Europe with the Lester Bowie Quintet and his New York Organ Ensemble. In 1985 she joined Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.

Notable collaborations also include recordings with Bill Laswell, Marian McPartland, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Frank Lowe, Leroy Jenkins, Jim Pepper and Ray Anderson.

As leader

Albums featured

With Muhal Richard Abrams

With the Art Ensemble of Chicago

With Arthur Blythe

With Lester Bowie

With Frank Lowe

With Greg Osby

With Jim Pepper

With Third Rail

With Henry Threadgill

With James Blood Ulmer