This wildly creative multi-instrumentalist was barely eulogized, despite a career that took him through Phil Cohran’s Artistic Heritage Ensemble and gigs with Eddie Harris and Ramsey Lewis.| ✍️ Steve Krakow
. “When I saw Joseph Jarman, he was playing the things that I’d been thinking about playing. I first played flute, oboe, and clarinet, and became a drummer after my instrument got stolen. I never had a teacher. I taught myself how to play drums in two weeks, and then I formed my own band.”
Cohran was so taken with the group that he added them to a two-week show, and in 1968 he offered Reklaw his first professional job: a spot in Cohran’s groundbreaking groove unit, the Artistic Heritage Ensemble. The group’s large, fluid lineup also included conga player Master Henry Gibson and guitarist Pete Cosey , and during its tragically short run its gigs included an empowering musical with Oscar Brown Jr. and an opening slot for Sammy Davis Jr.
“I’ve played with several great musicians throughout the world, but Eddie Harris was the best,” Reklaw continued. “There was absolutely nothing that he couldn’t do, whether it was yodeling or playing the piano. He was one of the best piano players I ever saw. He would take newspaper and put it inside, between the strings, and then he’d play the piano and it would sound like drums. I never saw anybody else do that. . . .
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