Cited by Bob Young as a "True original" who "meshes genres" into a singular "form
for her unique sounds" in a recent issue of JAZZIZ Magazine, Amina Claudine Myers
spent her childhood in Blackwell, Arkansas, and Dallas, Texas; and began her musical
training as a child. Upon her return to Arkansas, she so-founded the Gospel Four and
the Royal Hearts, performing in high schools and church choirs. She studied European
concert music at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, from which she graduated with
a B.A. degree in music education. The next stop on her music journey was Chicago.
Besides
teaching music for 6 years in Chicago's public school system, Myers joined the Association
for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1966, honing her craft as a composer
and performing alongside such visionary artists as pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, percussionist
Ajaramu (Jerold Donavan) and reedmen Henry Threadgill and Kalaparusha (Mauric McIntyre).
In 1970, she hit the road with Sonny Stitt, followed by a two and a half year hitch with the Gene Ammons Quartet. Since
1976, when she moved to New York City, she has performed with her own groups - the Amina Claudine Myers Voice Choir,
Trio, Quartet and Sextet. Owing to her musical training and wide-ranging background, Myers moves gracefully, balancing
precision with passion, from dust-road country blues and soulful organ fund to shimmering tone poems and street-smart
urban r&b. The resulting sound combines the spontaneity and intimacy of jazz with the balance and high-impact intensity
of pop music. Yet, as Jim Macnie noted in his laudatory (for The New Paper of Rhode Island) of her Novus/RCA Records
debut last year, AMINA, Myers "Knows exactly where jazz and pop coincide." For Myers, that common ground is the bedrock
tradition of, indeed her nearly lifelong involvement with, Afro-American spirituals and gospel music.
Her six recordings
as a leader prior to making AMINA for Novus/RCA are POEM FOR PIANO (Marion Brown's piano music, for Sweet Earth Records),
SONG FOR MOTHER E (Leo), AMINA CLAUDINE MYERS SALUTED BESSIE SI\MITH (Leo), THE CIRCLE OF TIME (Black Saint), JUMPING IN
THE SUGAR BOWL and COUNTRY GIRL (Both Minor Music).