The
founder of the ME, WE AND THEM ORCHESTRA, composer/arranger/ saxophonist
James “Jabbo” Ware was born in Rome, Georgia in 1942.
He began his musical training on alto saxophone in St. Louis, Mo.
in 1960, under the guidance of Mr. Harry Winn, a tenor saxophonist
who had travelled throughout the South playing in swing bands during
the 1920s and ’30s. In the middle through late 1960s, Mr. Ware
played in various rhythm and blues bands, and composed for and performed
with BAG (the Black Artists Group of St. Louis), among whose members
were Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, J.D. Parran and Hamiett Bluiett.
It was after he first “heard” Mr. Bluiett’s sound
on baritone saxophone that Mr. Ware switched to that instrument,
and it was Mr. Bluiett who convinced him to move to New York in
1970.
Once in New York, Mr. Ware studied improvisation and composition
with George Coleman. While a member of the CBA Band (Collective
Black Artists), and of bands led by Frank Foster and Sam Rivers,
Mr. Ware met many of the musicians who now make up the ME, WE AND
THEM ORCHESTRA. Through his association with Archie Shepp, Mr. Ware
met the late Cal Massey, who premiered two of Mr. Ware’s early
compositions at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
As a result
of the encouragement he received from colleagues such as Mr. Massey,
and in realization of a dream he had nurtured since playing in George
Hudson’s big band in St. Louis, Mr. Ware formed the ME, WE
AND THEM ORCHESTRA in 1973.
Mr. Ware’s
music is concerned with telling stories based on his favorite themes:
“Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?”.
The titles of Mr. Ware’s compositions mean what they say, and
the order in which they are presented in concert is always carefully
planned. As Mr. Ware explains;
“At first, the audience may not understand where I’m trying
to take them, but by the time they get there, they’ll know...”
Mr. Ware’s vision of the family as an ongoing unit to which
we all belong is symbolized by his concept of the big band as a
family: “ME” represents the Creator; “WE” represents
the mother and father; “THEM” represents the children. |
