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Roanoke native Don Pullen was a renowned jazz pianist known for his innovative fusion of gospel, blues and avant-garde styles.
Courtesy of Blue Note Records / Courtesy of Roanoke Public Libraries / Courtesy of Keith Pullen
Roanoke native Don Pullen was one of the most esteemed pianists in the history of jazz. Pullen traversed a wide range of sounds from gospel to blues to jazz. In the jazz idiom, he gained recognition as a genuinely global performer. Pullen first came to wide notice as a member of Charles Mingus’ band. He later incorporated Avant Garde, African, Brazilian and Native American sounds into his work. Pullen excelled and innovated on the piano and the Hammond organ. In addition to Charles Mingus, he worked with a who’s who in the jazz and blues worlds such as Nina Simone, Ruth Brown, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Maceo Parker and John Scofield.
Courtesy of Keith Pullen
The Pullen Family, early 1990s (Left to right): Don, Tracey, Joyce & Keith
“Don Pullen developed a surprisingly accessible way of performing avant-garde jazz,” according to AllMusic. “Although he could be quite free harmonically, with dense, dissonant chords, Pullen also utilized catchy rhythms, so even his freest flights generally had a handle for listeners to hang on to.”
Donald Gabriel Pullen was born on Christmas Day 1941 in Roanoke. The son of Rev. Aubrey Spencer Pullen and Ernestine Marvely (Rucker) Pullen, Don was one of five children in a close, deeply religious and musical family. The Rev. Aubrey Pullen served as the minister at Reed Street Baptist Church and was also a talented guitar player and dancer. His wife was a renowned singer and music director who was well known for her service to church communities in the Roanoke area.
Pullen took up the piano at age 10 after the piano from his grandparents’ home was moved into his parents’ place on Fairfax Avenue. A neighbor, Audrey Whitlock, and his cousin, Clyde “Fats” Wright, a well-known Roanoke musician, were his primary teachers. Pullen joined the school choir at Harrison Elementary and started to sing and play keyboards at both his father’s church and Sweet Union Baptist Church, where his mother served as choir director.
Courtesy of Roanoke Public Libraries
Classmates named Pullen “Most Musical” in his senior yearbook at Lucy Addison High School.
Pullen’s interests started to venture beyond sacred music at Booker T. Washington Junior High School, as he grew interested in more contemporary sounds. During his freshman year at Lucy Addison High School, he discovered jazz and sought out opportunities to watch performers at local clubs and also to perform. At times, he snuck out of his home to visit the city’s jazz clubs. In high school, he was a member of the jazz and music appreciation clubs as well as the choir. Unsurprisingly, his classmates named him “Most Musical” in his senior yearbook at Lucy Addison.
Pullen was an excellent student and graduated near the top of his class in 1959. He earned an academic scholarship to attend Johnson C. Smith College in Charlotte, North Carolina. He matriculated with hopes of becoming a doctor but soon changed his major to music. He found a vocation in music at Johnson C. Smith, honing his skills as an artist in the college’s performance studios. He also joined up with a cluster of local musicians who educated him in the history of jazz.
After graduating with his bachelor’s degree in 1963, Pullen moved to Chicago and then New York to pursue his muse. Pullen played increasingly experimental jazz piano with Avant Garde compatriots, including drummer Milford Graves and saxophonist Giuseppi Logan, the pair with whom he recorded his first two albums. By day, Pullen earned a living as an arranger and an organist on rhythm and blues recordings for several New York labels.
Don Pullen gained his greatest recognition as a pianist playing alongside Charles Mingus, arguably the greatest bassist in jazz history, during the mid-1970s. Pullen was part of the last great iteration of Mingus’ band, recording two of Mingus’ most revered albums, “Changes One” and “Changes Two,” in a marathon session for Atlantic Records. After a long battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Mingus died in 1979.
Courtesy of Blue-Note-Records
Beginning in the late 1970s, Pullen formed a highly-acclaimed jazz quartet with fellow Mingus veteran, saxophonist George Adams. The Pullen-Adams quartet gained wide esteem for their recorded work and live performances around the world.
No matter where he went, Roanoke was home for Don Pullen. Keith Pullen, one of Don’s four children, remembers fondly the time he spent with his father and family in Roanoke. Though Keith grew up primarily in New Jersey, he spent most of his summers in Roanoke at his grandparents’ home.
“It was good times for me, visiting or living here when I was younger,” Keith, who now resides in Roanoke, says. “The neighborhood was friendly.” He remembers his grandparents as deeply caring and committed to their family and friends. Don Pullen left Roanoke in the summers when he had to tour but Keith and his sister Tracey often stayed in the area for the whole summer. The relative quiet of Roanoke fit Don’s personality when he got the chance to spend time in his hometown.
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The story above is a preview from our January/February 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!