Horace Tapscott - 1980 - Autumn Colours

Horace Tapscott 

1980

Autumn Colours

01. Blues For Dee II

02. Dee Bee's Dance

03. Autumn Colors

04. J.O.B.

Recorded in Hollywood, May 3, 1980

Bass – David Bryant

Drums – Everett Brown Jr.

Piano – Horace Tapscott

Los Angeles-based pianist Horace Tapscott (1934) was something of a moral leader for California's free-jazz community. In 1959 he established the multimedia Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and in 1961 he helped create the Underground Musicians' Association (UGMA), but nothing surfaced on record. A quintet featuring alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe recorded the four jams of The Giant Is Awakened (april 1969), also known as West Coast Hot. The solo piano album Songs of the Unsung (february 1978), full of covers, was hardly representative of his compositional genius or his rhythmically eccentric style. The Arkestra (two pianos, six reeds, two trombones, tuba, cello, two basses and two percussionists) was finally documented on Flight 17 (april 1978), that includes no Tapscott compositions, and The Call (april 1978), mostly composed by Tapscott. Besides a trio with bassist Art Davis and drummer Roy Haynes, In New York (january 1979), and the other trios of Autumn Colors (may 1980), and Dissent or Descent (1984), and the duo with a drummer of At the Crossroads (1980), his art was best represented on the two original pieces of Dial B for Barbara (1981) for a sextet (piano, trumpet, two saxophones, bass and drums).