Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre born 24 March 1936

Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre (March 24, 1936 – November 9, 2013) was an American free jazz tenor saxophonist, who also played flute, clarinet and percussion, and occasionally performed in face paint and tribal costume.

Maurice Benford McIntyre was born into a well-educated family in Clarksville, Arkansas, the child of a pharmacist and a schoolteacher, and was raised in Chicago.  Music was an integral part of his upbringing; his parents insisted he play an instrument. He started on drums at age seven and switched to saxophone shortly after. Upon high-school graduation, McIntyre attended the Chicago College of Music.He was an early convert to the world of narcotics, and at the age of 24 found himself serving a two year drug sentence alongside the pianist and composer Tadd Dameron, a major figure in bebop. By accounts, he spent the bulk of his days in prison studying and practicing the saxophone. When released in 1963, time had served him well. He was filled with musical fire.

                        Here's the title track from above album

                                   

McIntyre made contact with the tutelary co-founder of AACM, Muhal Richard Abrams, and became one of the most passionate and articulate spokesmen of the Chicago-based Association and an exponent of fiery but spacious "spirit jazz". He described the AACM's mission, and his own, in strikingly dramatic terms. The new black avant-garde, he said, was "the stranded particle, the isolated island of the whole", at war with, but also to some degree still dependent on, the confused normality of the mainstream political and cultural system. It was this vision that fuelled his work.

His record Humility In The Light of the Creator was released on the Delmark label in 1969, followed by the fine Forces and Blessings. He adopted the name Kalaparush Ahra Difda, but later reverted an extended version of his birth name. McIntyre moved to New York City in the 1970s and worked at Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio for a time, recording further material for the European Black Saint label, but it was as a teacher, guru and community-based musician that McIntyre made his greatest impact. He and Muhal Richard Abrams toured Europe several times.

Between 1977 and 1984 he recorded seven full length records. Four find him as the bandleader. On two he shared the billing (Jerome Cooper, Frank Lowe / Roland Alexander). On the final he’s a member of a collective (Ethnic Heritage Ensemble). It was a very productive time. Many of those records rank among the best of the era. But by then the music industry seemed to have wholly abandoned him. 

Every now and then, with the assistance of longtime friends or younger admirers, Kalaparusha would emerge with a new band, playing in underground spots in Brooklyn, or recording for true-believer independent labels. In those instances, one was quickly reminded of the beauty of his sound and the power of his conception. But his last years were difficult; he made most of his living playing in the subway, as portrayed in a heartbreaking and troubling documentary short film by Danilo Parra, in which he sadly regards his own horn as a “starvation box.”

His next major appearance on record was not until 1998, with Pheeroan akLaff and Michael Logan; the following year, he played with many AACM ensemble members on the album Bright Moments. Intermittent drug use harmed his career, but McIntyre returned strongly in the first decade of the new century, continuing to record as leader with further explorations that combined avant-garde saxophone playing and roots music. Some of his later work demands a sympathetic ear to extract much pleasure, but McIntyre was not primarily interested in the commodification of music as entertainment. 

Last sightings had him working as a street musician, preparing new material in the midst of the community, which is where he felt most comfortable. His is an individual tragedy; whether through bad luck or bad choices, he never received the attention his artistry deserved, and never received the financial or societal support that might have allowed him to make a full recovery, or at least better manage his illness.

He died from heart failure 9th November 2013, in The Bronx, New York, at the age of 77.

(Edited from The Independent, The New Yorker & Wikipedia)