Jamal R. Moore

I am a multi-disciplinary artist working in music performance, composition, education, and metalsmithing. My artistic practice centers around the tonality of healing and uplifting humanity with positive frequencies and joy.

It is through our ancestral past that we learn of the necessary tools to develop ancestral intelligence to guide our everyday lives, the cycles of life, and develop our spiritual awareness. My inspiration is driven by the forces of nature, elements of human coordination and existence, social political interchange, and cosmic law.

It is with pure intent that I strive for my creative expression to be a universal healing force from the oversoul and to empower the self and society.

Jamal R. Moore is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, educator, and native of Baltimore, Maryland. Moore’s research-driven practice incorporates percussion, woodwinds, and electronic synthesis, exploring African American/Diasporic traditions and global indigenous aesthetics. 

Moore leads several groups—Akebulan Arkestra, Napata Strings, Black Elements Quartet, Organix Trio, and Mojuba Duo—and has received numerous chamber ensemble commissions. Sawud Rayay (2022), which translates to "Black Sun", is a four-movement symphony composed for Mind on Fire, an arts organization presenting contemporary music in Baltimore. The work explores the Egyptian cosmology of the sun and its impact on human creation and existence, employing a graphic notation language Moore developed called "Tasu-Re" to guide collective improvisation through composed movements.

Moore has worked and recorded with luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Nicole Mitchell, Archie Shepp, David Ornette Cherry, Tomeka Reid, Dr. Bill Cole, DJ Lou Gorbea, George Duke, Sheila E., David Murray, J.D. Parran, Ras Moshe, Hprizm, Tatsuya Nakatani, Hamid Drake, and Yahya Abdul Majid (Sun Ra Arkestra). He is an affiliate of The Pan African Peoples Arkestra, founded by Horace Tapscott; Black Praxis of David Boykin; and is a member of Konjur Collective.

Moore holds an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts and a B.M. from Berklee College of Music. He was a member of the Eubie Blake Jazz Orchestra (2000) under the direction of Christopher Calloway Brooks, and graduated from the Frederick Douglass High School, whose notable alumni include Thurgood Marshall, Cab Calloway, and Ethel Ennis.

He is a Professor at Coppin State University and full-time music educator in the Baltimore City Public School district.