Not long after bassist Charles Mingus’ death in 1979, three men who had played frequently with him throughout the 1970s–pianist Don Pullen, tenor saxophonist George Adams, and drummer Dannie Richmond–began a group of their own, adding bassist Cameron Brown. From 1979 to 1988 the quartet recorded 12 albums, but only the last two, Breakthrough and Songs Everlasting, were released domestically, on the Blue Note label. The band’s music, a compelling blend of mainstream bop, blues, soul-jazz, and exploratory outside playing, made it one of the great under-hailed groups of the 1980s.
Watch the Don Pullen-George Adams Quarter perform “Song From the Old Country”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsdaaRgPlwE
Music Heard On This Episode
Miss D.D.
Mary Lou Williams — Black Christ of the Andes (Smithsonian Folkways, 1964)
