Joseph Jarman was born on September 14, 1937, and passed away on January 9, 2019. He was an American jazz musician, composer, poet, and priest in the Shinshu Buddhist tradition. He was one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He also belonged to the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Biography

Joseph Jarman was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. At DuSable High School, he studied drums with Walter Dyett. After graduating from high school, he joined the United States Army and switched to playing saxophone and clarinet. During his time in the Army, he was part of the 11th Airborne Division Band for one year.

In 1958, after leaving the Army, Jarman attended Wilson Junior College. There, he met bassist Malachi Favors Maghostut and saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, and Anthony Braxton. Their professor, Richard Wang, encouraged them to perform long practice sessions together. Mitchell introduced Jarman to pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. In 1961, Jarman, Mitchell, and Maghostut joined Abrams’ Experimental Band, a group that did not perform publicly. These musicians continued to play together in different groupings and helped found the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1965, along with Fred Anderson and Phil Cohran.

Jarman’s solo recording career began in the 1960s. He released two albums on the Delmark label, which included spoken word and unusual instruments. These sounds later became part of the Art Ensemble’s style. Between 1966 and 1968, Jarman led a band that included Fred Anderson (tenor sax), Billy Brimfield (trumpet), Charles Clark (bass), Christopher Gaddy (piano), and Thurman Barker (drums). In 1969, Clark and Gaddy died, and Jarman ended his group.

In 1967, Jarman joined Mitchell, Maghostut, and Lester Bowie (trumpet) in the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble. The group later added Don Moye on drums and became known as the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AECO). The band wore costumes on stage, and Jarman used facepaint, which he described as a “shamanistic image” inspired by different cultures. In 1969, the group moved to Paris and lived in a commune with Steve McCall, who later formed the jazz trio Air. In the 1970s, Jarman returned to Chicago and lived in Hyde Park with Malachi Favors. In 1983, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he lived until his death.

Jarman remained with the Art Ensemble until 1993, when he left to focus on his spiritual practice, which he called “a cleansing process.” Fans worried about his health when he did not appear at a 1994 AECO performance. He had little involvement with music until 1996, when he recorded two CDs with pianist Marilyn Crispell and joined a trio with Leroy Jenkins and Myra Melford, which became Equal Interest. He later returned to the Art Ensemble in 2003 after learning how to blend his Buddhist teachings with music.

In addition to saxophone and clarinet, Jarman played nearly all woodwind instruments, such as flute and oboe, and many percussion instruments. He also composed for orchestras and created multimedia works for musicians and dancers.

Jarman was best known for his music, but he also practiced Zen Buddhism and aikido. He studied aikido in the 1970s in Chicago and began studying Zen Buddhism in 1990. He visited monasteries in Asia, including one in Kyoto, Japan. Later, he opened his own aikido dojo and zendo, called Jikishinkan, in Brooklyn. He was a Jodo Shinshu priest and held a fifth-degree black belt in aikido.

Joseph Jarman died of respiratory failure on January 9, 2019, at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey. He was 81 years old.

Discography

• 1966 – Song For (Delmark)
• 1968 – As If It Were the Seasons (Delmark)
• 1971 – Together Alone (Delmark) with Anthony Braxton
• 1976 – Sunbound Volume One (AECO)
• 1977 – Egwu-Anwu (Sun Song) (India Navigation) with Don Moye
• 1979 – The Magic Triangle (Black Saint) with Don Pullen & Don Moye
• 1979 – Black Paladins (Black Saint) with Don Moye & Johnny Dyani
• 1981 – Earth Passage – Density (Black Saint) with Don Moye, Craig Harris & Rafael Garrett
• 1983 – Inheritance (Four Star, 1991) with Geri Allen, Fred Hopkins and Don Moye
• 1991 – Calypso's Smile (AECO) with Don Moye
• 1996 – Connecting Spirits (Music & Arts) with Marilyn Crispell
• 1996 – Pachinko Dream Track 10 (Music & Arts)
• 1997 – Out of the Mist (Ocean) with Leroy Jenkins
• 1997 – Return of the Lost Tribe (Delmark) as Bright Moments: with Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Kahil El'Zabar, Malachi Favors and Steve Colson
• 1997 – Equal Interest (OmniTone) as Equal Interest: with Leroy Jenkins and Myra Melford
• 2002 – Lifetime Vision Orchestra: Vision Festival 2002 (Jyuku Sound)

With the Art Ensemble of Chicago

• For Trio (Arista, 1978)
• Outer and Interactions (About Time, 1988)
• Seasons (BYG, 1971)