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| Famoudou Don Moye | |
|---|---|
| Name | Famoudou Don Moye |
| Birth date | 1946 |
| Birth place | Rochester, New York |
| Genres | Jazz, Avant-garde jazz, Free jazz, Afrobeat |
| Occupations | Drummer, Percussionist, Bandleader, Educator |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Labels | Delmark, Black Saint, ECM, India Navigation, AECO |
| Associated acts | Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra Arkestra, Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman |
Famoudou Don Moye is an American jazz percussionist and drummer known for his long association with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and for extensive collaborations across avant-garde, free jazz, and world music scenes. Born in Rochester, New York, Moye developed a reputation for integrating West African, Afro-Caribbean, and modern jazz percussive vocabularies into ensemble contexts, performing with leading figures from Chicago to New York and Europe. His career spans collaborations with members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), recordings on independent labels, and participation in major festivals and tours worldwide.
Moye was born in Rochester, New York, where he encountered regional scenes linked to Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Eastman School of Music, George Eastman Museum, Kodak, University of Rochester and the broader Upstate New York arts network. His early exposure included community ensembles connected to Gospel music, touring bands associated with Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, and local jazz clubs associated with figures like Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. He later moved to the Midwest and engaged with the Chicago creative music milieu, interacting with institutions and artists such as the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Hyde Park Art Center, DuSable Museum of African American History, and educators connected to Chicago State University and University of Illinois Chicago. Moye studied traditional West African percussion with masters linked to communities from Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Cuba, Haiti, and Dominican Republic, and absorbed rhythmic approaches traced to ensembles like Orchestra Baobab and artists such as Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Ali Farka Touré, Babatunde Olatunji, and Tito Puente.
Moye joined the Art Ensemble of Chicago following earlier work with members of the group including Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Malachi Favors, and Don Moye's contemporaries in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With the Ensemble he performed at venues such as Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Village Vanguard, Montreux Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and touring circuits linked to European Union cultural programs. Recordings with the Ensemble appeared on labels including Delmark Records, BYG Actuel, ECM Records, Black Saint, and Arista Records, and featured collaborations with guest artists like Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Cecil Taylor, and Max Roach. The Ensemble's projects intersected with organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, UNESCO, Smithsonian Institution, and initiatives promoted by Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Chicago Jazz Festival.
Outside the Art Ensemble, Moye worked with a wide range of artists and institutions across jazz, world music, and experimental scenes: associations with Muhal Richard Abrams, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Bessie Smith (reissues). He toured with ensembles linked to Sun Ra Arkestra, collaborated with contemporary composers connected to Meredith Monk and Steve Reich, and recorded with emerging artists on labels such as India Navigation, Black Saint/Soul Note, ECM, PIAS, and Nonesuch Records. Projects included collaborations with world-music figures like Toumani Diabaté, Baaba Maal, Richard Bona, Manu Dibango, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour, and cross-disciplinary work with dance companies tied to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Pina Bausch, and theater productions associated with Judson Dance Theater.
Moye’s style synthesizes traditions from West African music, Cuban music, Brazilian samba, Haitian vodou drumming, Afrobeat, and the American avant-garde. Influences include drummers and percussionists such as Max Roach, Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Babatunde Olatunji, Artemis Cozen, Tito Puente, Santana (Carlos Santana), and innovators like Milford Graves and Ed Blackwell. His approach relates to compositional and improvisational practices advanced by members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians including Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, and Muhal Richard Abrams, while also reflecting folkloric sources documented by ethnomusicologists at institutions like Smithsonian Folkways, International Library of African Music, and academic programs at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and School of Oriental and African Studies.
Moye plays drum set, congas, bongos, shekere, talking drum, bata, djembe, claves, tambourine, timbales, cymbals, gongs, frame drums, and assorted found percussion. He integrates techniques from repertoires associated with ensembles like Les Ballets Africains, Gwo Ka, Rara (Haitian festival), and traditions preserved by masters such as Sikiru Adepoju and West African drumming lineages tied to Yoruba and Ewe cultures. His kit setups and extended techniques echo experimental practices explored by John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, and Karlheinz Stockhausen while maintaining rhythmic drive reminiscent of Papa Jo Jones and Buddy Rich.
Select recordings featuring Moye include albums with the Art Ensemble of Chicago on Delmark Records, BYG Actuel, ECM Records, and Black Saint; his own leader dates on AECO Records and collaborations on India Navigation and Nessa Records. Notable projects span releases alongside Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, duo and trio recordings with Malachi Favors, and guest appearances on sessions by Pharoah Sanders, Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill, and world-music albums with Fela Kuti-inspired artists and Afrobeat productions.
Moye’s achievements have been acknowledged within circles related to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, festival honors at Montreux Jazz Festival, lifetime achievement contexts offered by Jazz Journalists Association, inclusion in exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution, and nominations or citations linked to organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Jazz Masters program, DownBeat Critics Poll, and European cultural awards administered by institutions like the Arts Council England and festival committees at North Sea Jazz Festival.
Category:American jazz drummers Category:1946 births Category:Living people