Idris Ackamoor

Saxophonist and composer Idris Ackamoor is best-known as the founder and leader of the Pyramids, an Afrofuturist spiritual jazz group. Their sound emerged from a fertile creative aesthetic terrain previously explored by Sun Ra and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. From 1970 to 1976, the Pyramids independently released three classic albums: 1973's Lalibela, 1974's King of Kings, and 1976's Birth, Speed, Merging. After splitting in 1977, Ackamoor played with Chico Freeman and joined the Cecil Taylor Creative Orchestra. After renewed interest in and remastered editions of the Pyramids' albums, Ackamoor re-formed the band in 2011 to release Otherworldly. In 2016, as Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids, he signed with the U.K.'s Strut label and released We Be All Africans. The group toured to international acclaim, and in 2018 released An Angel Fell, produced by Malcolm Catto. Shaman! followed in 2021, and Afro Futuristic Dreams arrived in 2023.