Jamaaladeen Tacuma
b. Rudy MacDaniel, 11 June 1956, Hempstead, New York, USA. Tacuma grew up in Philadelphia and sang doo-wop as a teenager. He has named his youthful inspirations as James Brown, the Temptations and Stevie Wonder. He started playing double bass at the age of 13 and his first professional gig was with organist Charles Earland. He was brought to the world's attention by his participation in Ornette Coleman's seminal DANCING IN YOUR HEAD in 1977 (his name was still listed as Rudy MacDaniel since this was before his conversion to Islam). He had the ability to combine slick, dance-oriented riffs with an ear open to Ornette's harmolodic weaving of contrasting keys and tempi. He also appeared on BODY META (1978, rec. 1975) and Of HUMAN FEELINGS as part of Prime Time, Ornette's electric band. In 1978 he played on James Blood Ulmer's thunderous masterpiece TALES OF CAPTAIN BLACK. In 1981 he received the highest number of votes ever received for an electric bassist in the ‘Talent Deserving Wider Recognition’ category of the downbeat critics' poll. His debut for Gramavision in 1983, SHOWSTOPPER presented his own sleek, airbrushed version of harmolodics. The follow-up, RENAISSANCE MAN, had a disco version of the Dancing In Your Head theme (on which Ornette guested), a poem for Paul Robeson and an extended suite for string quartet and fretless bass; the album lived up to its name. Having produced the excellent (I Want To) Squeeze You Hold You for Willy (Mink) DeVille in 1983, he went on to form a pop/dance band, Cosmetic, that released a cover of Smokey Robinson's Get Ready for Rough Trade Records and a (stunning) album of out-and-out commercial music, SO TRANQUILIZIN'. Such attention to the commercial jugular caused Bill Laswell to call him the ‘pimp’ of harmolodics; Tacuma preferred to call it a ‘Trojan horse’ operation. In April 1985 he presented his music at Carnegie Recital Hall with the Ebony String Quartet, drummer Anton Fier and an orchestra led by Anthony Davis. The same year he was back with Prime Time for OPENING AT THE CARAVAN OF DREAMS and he also played on the harmolodic half of Coleman's 1987 IN ALL LANGUAGES double set. MUSIC WORLD and JUKE BOX confirmed his ability to flit between genres while maintaining his own special flavour. Other involvements have been as a founder member of Golden Palominos, and backing both guitarist Jeff Beck and poet Jayne Cortez.