Horace Tapscott

about

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. 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. 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, 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. Discography As leader The Giant is Awakened (Flying Dutchman, 1969) - as Horace Tapscott Quintet Songs of the Unsun

top songs

albums

The Giant Is Awakened

Thoughts of Dar Es Salaam

Live At Lobero Volume 1

Dissent Or Descent

The Dark Tree 1 & 2

Hassan's Walk

The Quintet

Aiee! the Phantom

The Tapscott Sessions, Vol. 9

Dial B For Barbra

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Soul Jazz Records Presents Soul Of A Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & The Roots of Rap 1968-79

The Tapscott Sessions Vol. 11

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