Fielder, Alvin Jr.

Fielder, Alvin Jr., jazz drummer, percussionist; brother of William Fielder; b. Nov. 23, 1935, Meridian, Miss. His father, Alvin Sr., studied cornet, his mother played piano and violin, his grandmother piano, and his mother’s brother clarinet. At 13, he began musical studies by joining the Harris Senior High Band in Meridian, under “Duke” Otis, with whom he was gigging three years later. He continued studies with Ed Blackwell and met Earl Palmer while in New Orleans studying to be a pharmacist at Xavier Univ. in 1952–53. After transferring to Tex. Southern Univ. in Houston, he continued musical study with Herb Brockstein. He had private lessons with George “Dude” Brown (Gene Ammons’s drummer from Washington, D.C.) and Clarence Johnston (James Moody’s drummer from Boston, Mass.) whenever they came through Houston working. From 1954–56, he worked with the “Pluma” Davis Sextet (with Don Wilkerson, Richard “Dicky Boy” Lillie, John Browning, Carl Lott Sr., and other Houston jazz luminaries). The sextet played for two years at the Eldorado in Houston, backing Big Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Amos Milburn, Lowell Fulsom, and other R&B artists with extended engagements. Pluma Davis introduced Fielder to Bobby Bland, and the drummer did occasional live gigs with Bland, and also did several studio dates for Duke Records backing gospel and blues artists. Through late 1958, Fielder was active on the Houston jazz scene with Jimmy Harrison Quintet, John Browning Quintet, and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson sextet (1955).

Fielder arrived in Chicago in December 1958, joined Sun Ra from early 1959 until early 1961; then played with Muhal Richard Abrams in 1962–63. During 1962, he spent some time in Denver and N.Y. He returned to Chicago in early 1963, and performed in the area with Roscoe Mitchell (1963–66), Eddie Harris (1964), co-op group with Anthony Braxton, Charles Clark, Leroy Jenkins and Kalaparusha (1965), co-op trio with Fred Anderson and Lester Lashley (1967–68). In between, he worked with John Stubblefield, Jack Dejohnette, “Scotty” Holt, Joseph Jarman, and other Chicago jazz musicians. He was a charter member of Association for the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM) in 1965. He moved back to Miss, around August 1968 to take over the family-owned pharmacy and later acquired two more pharmacies. In 1971, Fielder joined the Black Arts Music Society in Jackson, Miss., which helped bring progressive jazz musicians to the area to lead workshops. In the early 1970s, he met Edward “Kidd” Jordan in New Orleans with whom the Improvisational Arts Quintet was founded with bassist London Branch, Clyde Kerr, Alvin Thomas (tenor saxophone; died be-fore 1983). This was the first new music group based on the idea of the AACM in the southeastern U.S. Other important associates in New Orleans have been Elton Herron and Darrell Levine. Fielder joined the La. Jazz Federation, New Orleans, in 1981. His first European tour in 1982 was to the Netherlands and Moers festival in Germany; he returned to the Netherlands in 1984 (Northsea festival) and 1988, and later made tours of France and Austria. In 1986, he met Dennis Gonzalez, and worked with him for three years and recorded. He formed the Southeastern Jazz All Stars, featuring from time to time James Clay, Charles Davis, Joe Jennings, and Jothan Callins for southeast festivals and college dates from 1990–94. He met Joel Futterman and formed a trio along with “Kidd” Jordan in 1994. He conducted performances with trio and guest bassists William Parker, Barry Guy and Elton Herron at festivals in U.S. and Europe in late 1990s.

Discography

Sound (1967); No Compromise! (1983); Namesake (1987); The New New Orleans Music (1988); Debenge- Debenge (1988); New Desert Wind (1993); Nickelsdorf Konfrontation (1996); New Orleans Rising (1997).

—Lewis Porter