Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre

Multi-reedist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre is one of the founding members of Chicago's AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). McIntyre has the ability to not only play "free jazz" but he also spent many years playing rhythm & blues with musicians including J.B. Hutto and Little Milton. It was his blues roots mixed with avant-garde technique that shaped the sound of McIntyre's tenor playing. McIntyre was born in Clarkville, AR, but his family moved to Chicago when he was very young. Music was an intergral part of his upbringing; his parents insisted he play an instrument. He started on drums at age seven and switched to saxophone shortly after. Upon high school graduation McIntyre attended the Chicago College of Music. Instead of copying the strict hard bop tenor sound prominent at the time, he developed his own musical concept based on freedom instead of molded restriction. Luckily McIntyre hooked up with like-minded musicians in bassist Malachi Favors and multi-reedist Roscoe Mitchell. In the early '60s the first AACM configuration was formed. Originally called the Experimental Band, this community-based movement was mentored by pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. In 1966 the first document of this new music was unleashed; Sound, under the leadership of Roscoe Mitchell, signaled the initial documentation of the free jazz movement out of Chicago. Chicago's Delmark Records began documenting this new sound, releasing classic works including Abrams' Level and Degrees of Light and Humility in Light of the Creator, McIntyre's first solo effort released in 1969. In the late '60s McIntyre continued to play original music and worked as a session musician for Delmark with appearances on guitarist George Freeman's Birth Sign and J.B. Hutto's Hawk Squat....