Idris Ackamoor | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Bruce Baker |
Born | Chicago, Illinois, US | January 9, 1951
Origin | Yellow Springs, Ohio, US |
Genres | Jazz, afrobeat |
Member of | The Pyramids |
Idris Ackamoor (born Bruce Baker, January 9, 1951)[1][2] is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor, tap dancer, producer, administrator, and director.[3] He is also artistic director of the jazz ensemble The Pyramids.[4]
He founded the band The Pyramids in the early 1970s at Antioch College in Ohio as part of Cecil Taylor's Black Music Ensemble.[5] The band toured Africa in the 1970s, adding musicians and new instruments, before settling in San Francisco in the US.[5] Exploratory self-releases Lalibela (1973), King Of Kings (1974), and Birth / Speed / Merging (1976) had very limited runs, being sold only at concerts out of the trunks of their cars.[6]
The band split up in 1977, but Ackamoor has reformed the Pyramids several times.[5] Strut Records released new studio albums by the band in the 2010s: We Be All Africans and An Angel Fell.[7][8] Their 2023 album Afro Futuristic Dreams refers to the work of science fiction writers Octavia E. Butler and Samuel R. Delany.[9][10]
With Earl Cross, Rashied Al Akbar, and Muhammad Ali