Nadi Qamar

Nadi Qamar, real name Spaulding Givens, (July 6, 1917—October 21, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and music educator.

Nadi Qamar was born Thomas Spaulding Given in Madisonville, Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 6, 1917, to William and Alberta Givens. In his youth, he suffered from diphtheria, epilepsy, and tuberculosis, but despite that, his musical life on piano began early in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Cincinnati.

After living in California for a while, Qamar moved to New York to pursue a career in music.

In the early 1950s, Qamar was part of The Charlie Mingus Trio with Charles Mingus Jr. (bass) and Max Roach (drums). In April 1951, the trio released a jazz album titled Strings and Keys on Debut Records. Two years later, in April 1953, the trio released titles "Day Dream", "Jet", and "Theme from Rhapsody in Blue".

Qamar then engaged himself with African music and played with various African formations that toured the United States.

In 1967, he played percussions and conga on Andrew Hills's album Compulsion!(Blue Note Records BST 84217) with John Gilmore (bass clarinet, tenor sax), Freddie Hubbard (trumpet, flugelhorn), Richard Davis (bass), Cecil McBee (bass), Joe Chambers (drums), and Renaud Simmons (conga). The album was remastered by Rudy Van Gelder in 2006.

In 1970, Qamar worked with Rufus Harley on his album King / Queens alongside Montego Joe (congas), Jimmy Johnson (drums), Charles "Chuck" Rainey (electric bass), Eric Gale (guitar), and Richard Tee (piano).

In 1975, Qamar released The Nuru Taa African Musical Idiom: Played on the Mama-Likembi (Folkways Records – FTS 31306)—a collection of six original compositions played on the Mama-Likembi, an instrument he designed that consists of a grouping of African thumb pianos to be played with the fingers rather than the thumbs. Four years later, in 1979, he released Likembi Song Book (Folkways Records – FWCRB15), a group of recordings to tell stories of the Afro-Islamic experience through song.

Over the course of his career, he toured across the U.S., West Indies, Japan, and Australia, and played at FESTAC 1977 festival in Lagos, Nigeria.

From 1978 to 1985, Qamar and drummer Milford Graves taught music at Bennington College in Vermont. After seven years of teaching at Bennington, Qamar and his family relocated to Kewaunee, Wisconsin, where he established his own publishing company, Nuru Taa Music, and registered more than 300 of his compositions in BMI.

Qamar married Rose Ann Dolski on February 25, 1984. They had two children—Fabian Qamar and Alberta Qamar. He studied philosophy and spirituality throughout his life and became Catholic in 2003 at age 85.

Qamar died from COVID at St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on October 21, 2020. He was 103.

• Charles Mingus: The Complete Debut Recordings 1951 – 1958 (Debut/Fantasy Records)
• Andrew Hill: Compulsion (Blue Note Records, 1967)
• The Nuru Taa African Musical Idiom: Played on the Mama-Likembi (Folkways Records – FTS 31306, 1975)
• Likembi Song Book (Folkways Records – FWCRB15, 1979)
• From Spaulding Givens to Nadi Qamar (Self-published, 2011)

• Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6.
• Nat Hentoff: Liner notes (2006), Andrew Hill's Compulsion (Blue Note)