Albert Gunn EDIT 8_1
Chicago Shorts
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4m 1s
In 1976, Dr. Al Gunn walked into a music store and an object with metal keys caught his attention. It was hand-held with different length metal keys. He inquired and was told it was an Mbira, an African Thumb piano. He pushed down on the keys and his world changed instantly. The Mbira or commonly called the “African thumb piano”, became a major part of his life. He started playing and actually making Mbiras as if he had known it all his life. Entering medical school the fall of that same year, his marriage of music and medicine was formed.
After graduating medical school in the mid-1980s he connected with master musicians, the late Light Henry Huff and Khalfani Rivers, forming the Sound Therapy Research Ensemble. Their Sound Therapy sessions were conceived in performance through their first concert, November 12, 1984. They used mediation, yoga, tai-chi, and dance therapy, all as methods of bringing a spiritual and physical unity into focus.
Part 1 of a two-part series on the 60 year legacy of the African Thumb Piano in Chicago, that begins in the 1950s with the late Phil Cohran, a former member of the Sun Ra Band.
In 1976, Dr. Al Gunn walked into a music store and an object with metal keys caught his attention. It was hand-held with different length metal keys. He inquired and was told it was an Mbira, an African Thumb piano. He pushed down on the keys and his world changed instantly. The Mbira or commonly called the “African thumb piano”, became a major part of his life. He started playing and actually making Mbiras as if he had known it all his life. Entering medical school the fall of that same year, his marriage of music and medicine was formed.
After graduating medical school in the mid-1980s he connected with master musicians, the late Light Henry Huff and Khalfani Rivers, forming the Sound Therapy Research Ensemble. Their Sound Therapy sessions were conceived in performance through their first concert, November 12, 1984. They used mediation, yoga, tai-chi, and dance therapy, all as methods of bringing a spiritual and physical unity into focus.