Birth name Horace Elva Tapscott Name Horace Tapscott Books Songs of the Unsung Years active 1950s–1990s | Instruments Piano, trombone Education Jefferson High School Occupation(s) Musician, composer Role Jazz Pianist | |
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Born April 6, 1934Houston, Texas, U.S. ( 1934-04-06 ) Similar People John Carter, Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman, Cecil McBee, Michel Godard | ||
Horace tapscott peyote song no iii
Horace Elva Tapscott (April 6, 1934 – February 27, 1999) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s.
Contents
- Horace tapscott peyote song no iii
- Horace tapscott piano solo 1991
- Early life
- Later life and career
- As leader
- With the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra
- As sideman
- As composer and arranger
- References
Horace tapscott piano solo 1991
Early life
Tapscott was born in Houston, Texas, and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the age of nine. By this time he had begun to study piano and trombone. He played with Frank Morgan, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins as a teenager.
Later life and career
After service in the Air Force in Wyoming, he returned to Los Angeles and played trombone with various bands, notably Lionel Hampton (1959–61). Soon after, though, he quit playing trombone and focused on piano.
In 1961 Tapscott formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, with the aim of preserving, developing and performing African-American music. As his vision grew, this became just one part of a larger organization in 1963, the Underground Musicians Association (UGMA), which later changed name to the Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA). Arthur Blythe, Stanley Crouch, Butch Morris, Wilber Morris, David Murray, Jimmy Woods, Nate Morgan and Guido Sinclair all performed in Tapscott's Arkestra at one time or another. Tapscott and his work are the subjects of the UCLA Horace Tapscott Jazz Collection.
Enthusiasts of his music formed two labels in the 1970s and 1980s, Interplay and Nimbus, for which he recorded.
As leader
With the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra
As sideman
With Lou Blackburn
As composer and arranger
With Sonny Criss