Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre

Biography

24 March 1936, Clarksville, Arkansas, USA. McIntyre’s family moved to Chicago when he was six weeks old, and he grew up on the city’s south side. He began to play drums at the age of seven, and clarinet two years later, but he did not really study music seriously until his mid-teens, when he concentrated on tenor saxophone. After a drugs problems in the early 60s, he worked on the Chicago blues scene - performing with Little Milton, recording with J.B. Hutto - and also joined Muhal Richard Abrams’ Experimental Band, becoming one of the first members of the AACM in 1965. He played with Roscoe Mitchell’s sextet (Sound) and with Abrams (Levels And Degrees Of Light) before forming his own group, the Light, and recording his first session as leader in 1969 (Humility In The Light Of The Creator). That same year he underwent a form of spiritual conversion and changed his name to Kalaparush (or Kalaparusha) Ahrah Difda (or Defda), though subsequent...

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