The Cleveland cellist who converted to Islam
RIPThe funeral has taken place in Cleveland, Ohio, of the cellist Abdul Wadud, who changed his name from Ronald DeVaughn when he converted to Islam in his college years at Oberlin. While at college he played under his original name in the New Jersey Symphony.
Wadud, who was 75, worked in both jazz and contemporary classical, collaborating happily with composers Anthony Davis and Julius Hemphill.
His son Raheem DeVaughn writes:
It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my father and world-renowned Jazz & Classical Cellist Abdul Wadud. Born Ronald E. DeVaughn, on April 30, 1947 , in Cleveland, OH, my dad made his transition on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. Known for his work as a Jazz and Classical Musician and Composer. Wadud was the 1st person to pioneer in playing the Cello without the bow, he played with his hands. He studied at both Youngstown State and Oberlin Colleges while playing for the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. He later relocated to Newark, NJ where he played with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra while earning his Master’s Degree in 1972. My dad played with notable classical and jazz artists such as Julian Hemphill, Arthur Blythe, Frank Lowe, George Lewis, Oliver Lake, Sam Rivers, Cecil Taylor, David Murray, Chico Freeman, Anthony Davis, and James Newton, and Wynton Marsalis. Following his professional career, he relocated to Charlotte, NC later returning to Cleveland Ohio until his transition. Abdul leaves to cherish his memory his children : my sister, Aisha DeVaughn and I along with a host of friends and family.
My father will be memorialized through a traditional Islamic service on Friday August 12th, 2022 and will be laid to rest in Cleveland, Ohio.
On behalf of the DeVaughn and Wadud Family, we are grateful for the outpour of support and courtesy at this time.
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Comments
Given the broad career arch of this artist, that he converted to Islam – while of course a fact — seems to me to be obsessing about the wrong stuff.
I wonder if he knew of the recordings of Ennio Bolognini when he began to explore the cello as a non-bowed instrument.
Dear David K. Nelson,
OF course it is obsessing about the wrong stuff. Mr Lebrecht care mostly about clicks and stirring up his band of fellow trolls (fans, writers on the arts, pretentious others) .
He’s the most important jazz cellist in history, by a long shot, and despite a pretty short career (two and a half decades in the limelight). And yes, he converted to Islam at a time when many African-American men were doing so. When his contemporary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar kicks, are the headlines going to read: “The Harlem basketball player who converted to Islam”?
There is an interesting obituary in the New York Times, which includes a link to this Point of Departure interview from 2014:
https://www.pointofdeparture.org/PoD57/PoD57Wadud.html