Joel Futterman

Pianist Joel Futterman stands among the rare contemporary free improvisers capable of matching the percussive intensity long associated with Cecil Taylor while adding a distinct personal stamp to the high-velocity, cerebral idiom Taylor established. In the second half of the 1990s he expanded his instrumental palette by taking up the curved soprano saxophone and Indian flute, demonstrating strong command of each. Even so, his most refined technical command continues to reside at the piano, sustained by the disciplined daily regimen he adopted in the mid-1970s. Although his formative ties were to Chicago’s AACM circle, he stayed largely removed from public view until the early 1980s, with the bulk of his recordings surfacing only in the 1990s; once they appeared, wider recognition followed.

Futterman entered the world in Chicago on April 30, 1946. By age 14 he was already working professional jazz-club gigs, and he later accompanied Rahsaan Roland Kirk at a local festival. While forging links inside the expanding AACM community, he simultaneously withdrew into increasingly solitary practice. Concluding that the Chicago environment offered no further growth, he and his wife relocated to Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1973, allowing him to refine an individual approach free from external pressures. Three LPs on his own JDF imprint appeared in the early 1980s, and his trio began a sustained collaboration with saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, longtime associate of the Cecil Taylor Unit. Selected performances from that period reached the public in the early 1990s through Ear-Rational, Bellaphon, and Konnex. Lyons’s death from cancer in 1986 prompted Futterman to withdraw from live performance.

Persuaded by admirer and occasional musician Philip Egert, Futterman resumed concert activity and secured outlets for both archival and new material. Following the gradual release of Lyons’s own archival recordings, Futterman entered the studio in 1990 with trumpeter Raphe Malik; the resulting Berlin Images on Silkheart and To the Edge on Konnex were issued in 1992. Naked Colours, recorded with multi-instrumentalist Hal Russell, appeared on Silkheart in 1994, and the following year Futterman released his first completely solo album, Silhouettes. A particularly fertile partnership then developed with tenor saxophonist Kidd Jordan. Their initial recording, the live Nickelsdorf Konfrontation captured in Austria, came out on Silkheart in 1996. New Orleans Rising followed on Konnex in 1997, and Southern Extreme, issued by Drimala in 1998, added AACM founding member Alvin Fielder on drums. After another solo statement, Who Are You on Drimala, Futterman completed three well-received Kali albums in 1999: the duo Revelation with Jordan, the duo Relativity with guitarist Jimmy Williams, and the trio Authenticity completed by bassist William Parker. In 2000 he reunited with Paul Murphy for the Kali release Paul Murphy-Joel Futterman Quartet.