Don Pullen

Don Pullen
Pullen in Half Moon Bay, California, June 13, 1988
Background information
Birth name	Don Gabriel Pullen
Born	(1941-12-25)December 25, 1941 Roanoke, Virginia, United States
Died	April 22, 1995(1995-04-22) (aged 53) Los Angeles, California
Genres	Jazz, avant-garde jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer, arranger, record producer, bandleader
Instruments	Piano, organ
Years active	1964–1995
Labels	Timeless, Blue Note, Sackville, Black Saint, Atlantic, Palcoscenico, Mosaic, SRP
Associated acts	Milford Graves, Charles Mingus, Mingus Dynasty, Art Blakey, David Murray, John Scofield, George Adams, Hamiet Bluiett, Jane Bunnett

Don Gabriel Pullen (December 25, 1941 – April 22, 1995) was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed pieces ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz. The great variety of his body of work makes it difficult to pigeonhole his musical style.

Pullen was born on December 25, 1941, and raised in Roanoke, Virginia. Growing up in a musical family, he learned the piano at an early age. He played with the choir in his local church and was heavily influenced by his cousin, Clyde "Fats" Wright, who was a professional jazz pianist. He took some lessons in classical piano and knew little of jazz. At this time, he was mainly aware of church music and the blues.

Pullen left Roanoke for Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina to study for a medical career but soon he realized that his true vocation was music. After playing with local musicians and being exposed for the first time to albums of the major jazz musicians and composers he abandoned his medical studies. He set out to make a career in music, desirous of playing like Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy.

In 1964 he went to Chicago for a few weeks, where he encountered Muhal Richard Abrams' philosophy of making music. He then headed for New York, where he was soon introduced to avant-garde saxophonist Giuseppi Logan, who invited Pullen to play piano on his two albums, Giuseppi Logan (ESP, October 1964) and More (ESP, May 1965), both exercises in structured free playing. Although these were Logan's recordings, most critical attention was given to the playing of percussionist Milford Graves and the unknown Pullen.

Subsequently, Pullen and Graves formed a duo. Their concert at Yale University in May 1966 was recorded. They formed their own independent SRP record label (standing for "Self Reliance Project") to publish the result as two LPs. These were the first records to bear Pullen's name, second to Milford's. Although not greatly known in the United States, these avant-garde albums were well received in Europe, most copies being sold there. These recordings have never been reissued.