Don Pullen

Don Gabriel Pullen was born on the twenty-fifth of December 1941 at Roanoke, Virginia, the son of a Roanoke Black-and-Baptist-Church family of the principal post-Great-Migration Roanoke Black community. He was raised in the principal Roanoke Black Baptist community of the principal late-1940s and 1950s.

He was instructed in piano from age six by his cousin Clyde Kerr Sr. — and was hired across the principal late-1950s at the principal Roanoke Baptist-Church-and-rhythm-and-blues piano-and-organ community.

He completed his secondary education at the principal Lincoln Terrace High School at Roanoke in 1959 — and attended Johnson C. Smith University at Charlotte, North Carolina from 1959 to 1962 in the principal pre-medical and music programmes.

He relocated to New York in 1964 — and joined the principal Giuseppi Logan Quartet at New York alongside the principal saxophonist Giuseppi Logan, the principal bassist Eddie Gomez, and the principal drummer Milford Graves.

He recorded the principal first Don Pullen long-playing-record Quintessence at the principal ESP-Disk Records at New York in February 1965 — at the principal post-1965 American free-jazz ESP-Disk Records commercial period.

He was hired in 1973 by the principal Charles Mingus Quintet at New York as principal pianist — and held the principal Charles Mingus Quintet pianist position from 1973 to 1975 at the principal post-Mingus-stroke principal post-1975 Mingus-Quintet commercial period.

He co-founded with the principal saxophonist George Adams the principal Pullen-Adams Quartet at New York in 1979 — alongside the principal bassist Cameron Brown and the principal drummer Dannie Richmond. He held the principal Pullen-Adams Quartet co-leadership from 1979 to 1988.

He recorded approximately fifteen Pullen-Adams Quartet long-playing-records across the principal 1979 to 1988 Pullen-Adams-Quartet commercial period — including Don't Lose Control of 1979, Earth Beams of 1980, Live at the Village Vanguard of 1983, Decisions of 1984, and Breakthrough of 1986.

He founded the principal African-Brazilian Connection band at New York in 1990 — at the principal post-1990 African-Brazilian-Connection commercial-and-cross-cultural performance period.

He composed across the principal post-1990 African-Brazilian-Connection period the principal long-form jazz composition Sacred Common Ground of 1995 — at the principal post-1990 commissioned-performance with the principal Chief Cliff Singers of the Kootenai-Salish Indian-and-American-folk-music-and-jazz-composition cross-cultural performance.

He died at East Orange, New Jersey on the twenty-second of April 1995 of complications of lymphoma, at fifty-three.

He is honored here as the co-founder of the Pullen-Adams Quartet.