Abshalom ben Shlomo (born November 11, 1943)"Abshalom Ben Shlomo"
Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians, via ''AllAboutJazz''. is an Israeli-American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

saxophonist. Ben Shlomo is best known for working under the iconic jazz keyboardist and bandleader

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

throughout the 1970s.

Background

Abshalom ben Shlomo was born Virgil C. Pumphrey on November 11, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois. Ben Shlomo's first major exposure to the world of

came through the AACM, the esteemed Chicago arts institution. Earlier he had studied mainly under Chicago

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the Alto saxophone, alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key ...

great Joe Daley. Under his birth name Virgil Pumphrey, ben Shlomo had come to be viewed, along with a select group of musicians, as a key "first wave" participant in the AACM.

Sun Ra Arkestra & Beyond

Ben Shlomo first met

by chance in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

as a teenager around 1960, becoming a Creative Tone Scientist with the Arkestra beginning in 1970. His most notable recordings with Sun Ra & the Arkestra include the more avant-garde " Black Myth/Out in Space" LP, and performances such as the Nuits de la Fondation Maeght shows from 1970 which were released in 1971 on the French avant-garde jazz label

Shandar Shandar was a French record label specializing in avant-garde material that did seminal work during the 1970s releasing, among others, recordings by Albert Ayler, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Sunny Murray, Philip Glass, Richard Horowitz, C ...

. In addition to saxophones, ben Shlomo plays clarinet, flute and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. Among countless luminaries of the jazz world, ben Shlomo has collaborated with free jazz giants Pharoah Sanders and

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Ch ...

, as well as

Henry Threadgill Henry Threadgill (born February 15, 1944) is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist. He came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles rooted in jazz but with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating other genres of music. He h ...

, a longtime friend from the early days of the AACM. Ben Shlomo relocated to

Arad, Israel Arad ( he, עֲרָד ) is a city in the Southern District of Israel. It is located on the border of the Negev and the Judean Deserts, west of the Dead Sea and east of Beersheba. The city is home to a diverse population of , including Ash ...

in the mid-1970s. He maintains strong ties to the local Hebrew-Yisraelite community there.

Current

Ben Shlomo has lived and evolved his Tone Science in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

for over 40 years now. The Abshalom Ben Shlomo Ethnic Experience, his main ensemble, performs regularly. In 2014, ben Shlomo was featured in the Sun Ra "Centennial Dream" Arkestra under the direction of

Marshall Allen Marshall Belford Allen (born May 25, 1924) is an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz alto saxophone player. He also performs on flute, oboe, piccolo, and EWI (an electronic valve instrument made by Steiner, Crumar company). Allen is best ...

References

External links

Abshalom Ben Shlomo discography at discogs.com

Official Ethnic Experience Bandcamp page

Abshalom ben Shlomo's Soundcloud page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ben Shlomo, Abshalom 1943 births Living people African-American jazz musicians 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people