The Muffins

Not to be confused with Martha and the Muffins.
The Muffins
OriginUnited States
GenresProgressive rock, avant-garde jazz, free improvisation
Years active1973–1981
1998–2016
LabelsRandom Radar, Cuneiform
Past membersDave Newhouse
Billy Swann
Thomas Scott
Paul Sears
Michael Zentner
Stuart Abramowitz
Websitewww.themuffinsband.com

The Muffins were an American Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz group. They were formed in Washington, DC in the early 1970s and recorded four albums before disbanding in 1981.[1][2] In 1998 the group reformed and recorded a further five albums and a DVD. The Muffins played at Symphony Space on Broadway in NYC with Marion Brown in 1979, and also performed at a number of festivals, starting with the ZU Manifestival in New York City in 1978, The Villa Celimontana festival in Rome, Italy in 2000, two appearances at Progday in 2001 and 2002, NEARfest in 2005,[3] and the "Rock in Opposition" festival in France in 2009.[4] In 2010, the Muffins headlined at Progday, making a third appearance at this long running festival.

The Muffins are largely an instrumental band inspired and influenced by avant-garde jazz, progressive rock, 20th-century music, and the English Canterbury scene.[1][5][6] They work in an "underground genre" Perfect Sound Forever called "the avant-garde side of latter-day US progressive jazz-rock", and place "the joy of creation over commercial concerns".[1] The Rolling Stone Record Guide called them the "spiritual American cousins of Henry Cow and Soft Machine",[7] and AllMusic described their music as a "unique blend of Canterbury progressive, fusion, improvisation and much more."[2]

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