Biography
Horace Arnold earned acclaim across both commercial music arenas and the formative jazz-rock movement. His introduction to drumming occurred in 1957 during a Coast Guard assignment in Los Angeles. Shortly before entering Dave Baker’s big band in 1959, he inserted an extra “e” into his surname as a theatrical device. Engagements with Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Charles Mingus followed, after which he formed a 1960 trio alongside Cecil McBee and Kirk Lightsey. In the early and mid-1960s Arnold turned toward dance accompaniment, supporting Henry Grimes and Bud Powell on certain occasions and joining Alvin Ailey’s company for an Asian tour on others. Two years performing with the Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba duo preceded a year studying composition with Heiner Stadler, followed by lessons in guitar and composition from Hy Gubenick and Ralph Towner. He established the Here and Now Company in 1967 and guided it for the subsequent three years. Although wide-ranging and bold, the project never proved profitable, yet it drew distinguished musicians including Sam Rivers, Karl Berger, Joe Farrell, and Robin Kenyatta. Arnold attained his highest profile in the early 1970s as a participant in the first wave of jazz-rock, where players genuinely sought fertile common ground between jazz improvisation and rock drive. He issued his own albums, appeared with Return to Forever and Stan Getz, and later toured Japan with Archie Shepp. In the late 1970s he joined Billy Hart and Freddie Waits to create Colloquim III, an ensemble devoted to performance and instruction that presented workshops at the New York Drummers’ Collective. During the 1980s Arnold taught at William Patterson College of New Jersey, took on freelance studio and recording work, and performed in a trio with Dave Friedman.
Albums
