The Muffins
American progressive rock/avant-jazz group / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Muffins were an American Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz group. They were formed in Washington, DC in the early 1970s and recorded four albums before disbanding in 1981.[1][2] In 1998 the group reformed and recorded a further five albums and a DVD. The Muffins played at Symphony Space on Broadway in NYC with Marion Brown in 1979, and also performed at a number of festivals, starting with the ZU Manifestival in New York City in 1978, The Villa Celimontana festival in Rome, Italy in 2000, two appearances at Progday in 2001 and 2002, NEARfest in 2005,[3] and the "Rock in Opposition" festival in France in 2009.[4] In 2010, the Muffins headlined at Progday, making a third appearance at this long running festival.
The Muffins | |
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Origin | United States |
Genres | Progressive rock, avant-garde jazz, free improvisation |
Years active | 1973–1981 1998–2016 |
Labels | Random Radar, Cuneiform |
Past members | Dave Newhouse Billy Swann Thomas Scott Paul Sears Michael Zentner Stuart Abramowitz |
Website | www.themuffinsband.com |
The Muffins are largely an instrumental band inspired and influenced by avant-garde jazz, progressive rock, 20th-century music, and the English Canterbury scene.[1][5][6] They work in an "underground genre" Perfect Sound Forever called "the avant-garde side of latter-day US progressive jazz-rock", and place "the joy of creation over commercial concerns".[1] The Rolling Stone Record Guide called them the "spiritual American cousins of Henry Cow and Soft Machine",[7] and AllMusic described their music as a "unique blend of Canterbury progressive, fusion, improvisation and much more."[2]