Joseph Jarman was an American jazz musician, composer, poet, and Shinshu Buddhist priest.
13 Facts About Joseph Jarman
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Joseph Jarman was one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
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Joseph Jarman was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States.
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Joseph Jarman's solo recording career began at this time, with two releases on the Delmark label which included material, such as spoken word and "little instruments", that would later characterize the sound of the Art Ensemble.
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However, in 1969, Clark and Gaddy both died and Joseph Jarman disbanded his group.
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Shortly after his bandmates Clark and Gaddy died in 1969, Joseph Jarman joined Mitchell, Maghostut and Lester Bowie in the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in 1967; the group would be later rounded out with the addition of Don Moye on drums.
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Joseph Jarman stayed with the Ensemble until 1993, when he left the group to focus on his spiritual practice, "a cleansing process" as he stated.
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Joseph Jarman did not have much to do with music until 1996 when, in January, he recorded two CDs, The Scott Fields Ensembles' 48 Motives and the concert, duo CD Connecting Spirits with Marilyn Crispell, which Fields produced.
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Joseph Jarman was most widely known for his musical accomplishments, but he was involved in the practice of Zen Buddhism and aikido.
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Joseph Jarman began his study of aikido in the early 1970s in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.
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Joseph Jarman began studying Zen Buddhism in 1990 and visited various monasteries in Eastern Asia, including Higashi Honganji Honzon in Kyoto, Japan.
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Joseph Jarman was latterly a Jodo Shinshu priest, and held a rank of godan in aikido.
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Joseph Jarman died of respiratory failure at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey on January 9,2019, as announced by the New York chapter of the AACM on their website.