Leroy Jenkins, Muhal Richard Abrams

CD version. Lifelong Ambitions is a concert of duets between violinist Leroy Jenkins and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, recorded live at Washington Square Church in New York on March 11, 1977 and released by Black Saint in the early 1980s. The two had known each other since Chicago in the 1960s, where Jenkins joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and formed ties with Abrams and Anthony Braxton. By 1977 both lived in New York: Jenkins had moved there with Braxton after returning to the United States in 1970, and Abrams had followed in 1975.

All six pieces are by Jenkins and each lasts between six and a half and seven and a half minutes. The titles read like a programme: Greetings And Salutations opens, then come Meditation, Happiness, The Blues and The Weird World, and The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost closes the concert. In 1977 Jenkins was still a member of the Revolutionary Ensemble, the trio he had co-founded in 1971 and which disbanded the following year. The concert was recorded by Kathy Dennis, and the LP was issued with Giovanni Bonandrini as executive producer.

This is the Black Saint CD 120033-2, which Discogs lists as a reissue, with the six pieces of the 1977 concert; the CD carries a 1981 copyright line.