Horace Tapscott

• the tapscott sessions series

Horace Tapscott began his musical career as a trombonist, and during the early part of the 1950s played in the Gerald Wilson big band. It wasn't until his US Army tour of duty in the late 1950s that he studied piano. He subsequently gave up the trombone due to an automobile accident while on tour with Lionel Hampton and settled in 1961 in Los Angeles to concentrate on piano.

Tapscott came to an obscure form of prominence in that period as a rebellious pianist during a time when New York was quickly becoming recognized as the center of the avant-garde movement. He was a preeminent voice playing new and startling music of the day, but exposure to a broader market was virtually denied him because of his preference to remain on the West Coast. His initial efforts in the early 1960s focused on the formation of the legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra as a vehicle of exposure for local talent. He made only four recordings in the 1960s, the most noted being his Flying Dutchman date The Giant is Awakened featuring Arthur Blythe.

It wasn't until 1982, however, that Tapscott afforded himself the great luxury of recording, over a two-year span, seven solo piano albums simply titled The Tapscott Sessions. These recordings on the Nimbus label, feature a mixture of his compositions, works by unknown composers in the Los Angeles area, and those of more noted writers. They give an intimate glimpse of the man and his musical mind and document the ebullient approach to improvising that characterized his work.

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