Horace Arnold
Horace Emmanuel Arnold, or Horacee Arnold (born September 25, 1937) is an American jazz drummer. He was born in Wayland, Kentucky.
Arnold first began playing drums in 1957 in Los Angeles while he held a position in the Coast Guard. In 1959, he began performing as "Horacee" when he joined a big band led by David Baker (composer); he also played with Roland Kirk and Charles Mingus that year. In 1960 he became the drummer in a trio with Cecil McBee and Kirk Lightsey.
In the 1960s he worked both in jazz (with pianist and Composer Hasaan Ibn Ali and Henry Grimes, and in 1964 with The Bud Powell Trio at Birdland) and in dance, as part of the Alvin Ailey American Dance company on a tour of Asia. Later in the 1960s, he played with Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba; following this he studied composition under Heiner Stadler, Hy Gubenick, and classical guitar with Ralph Towner. In 1967 he founded his own ensemble, The Here and Now Company, in which Sam Rivers, Karl Berger, Joe Farrell, and Robin Kenyatta.
In the 1970s Arnold became one of the best-known jazz fusion drummers, playing with Return to Forever, Stan Getz, Archie Shepp, and Billy Harper in addition to releasing two of his own solo albums. Later in the 1970s he formed a three-ensemble called Colloquium III with Billy Hart and Freddie Waits. In the 1980s Arnold went on to teach at William Paterson College, in addition to working as a session musician and playing with Kenny Burrell, he formed a trio that featured Dave Friedman and Anthony Cox.
Discography
- Tribe (Columbia Records, 1973)
- Tales of the Exonerated Flea (Columbia, 1974)
As sideman
- With Billy Harper
- Soran-Bushi, B.H. (Denon, 1978)
- Billy Harper Quintet in Europe (Soul Note, 1979)
- The Awakening (Marge, 1979)
- Somalia (Evidence, 1993 [1995])
References
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