Remembering a Jazz Great

blog intro

This past Sunday we lost an important creative mind: pianist, painter, and founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) Muhal Richard Abrams. Abrams had a long history with the MCA and left a lasting mark on Chicago. Curator Naomi Beckwith wrote, "In my mind, there would be no Freedom Principle show without Muhal's inspiration to experiment with objects and sound. His treasure trove of ephemera was the basis of so many images in the catalogue. Though he came to be known as a New Yorker, he always kept a house on the South Side of Chicago where his artworks and the history of the AACM lives to this day." In honor of his life and legacy, we are sharing a few mementos of his time in Chicago, his remarkable poster collection, and his influence on another early member of the AACM.