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Walter Zuber Armstrong (9 September 1936 - 2 March 1998) was an American jazz musician, composer, arranger and teacher. He was also a multi-instrumentalist known to be able to play flute; alto, piccolo, soprano flutes; bolivian wooden flute and the shakuhachi; bass and contrabass clarinets; percussion and piano. Zuber Armstrong was also known for producing and self releasing all his albums on his own private label World Artists.

Life and Career
Walter Zuber Armstrong was born Tupelo Lee County, Mississippi, USA. He had a classical education and studied at the New York College of Music, the Juilliard School and at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

Zuber Armstrong highly influenced by free jazz legends Eric Dolphy and Anthony Braxton. Like them, he was drawn to the idea of multi-instrumental textural dexterity. Chosing the bass clarinet and flute to cover opposite extremes, (instruments Eric Dolphy had used as an exotic sideline to his alto sax), Zuber Armstrong pretty much set aside the entire jazz content of Dolphy's music to concentrate on more spaced-out ideas looking to Braxton for inspiration. This led him to adopt the idea of solo reed performances, although unlike his latter model he was not particularly into shrieking displays of intensity.

For most of his life/career Zuber Armstrong was based out of the sleepy border town of Bellingham, WA. This led to Vancouver, British Columbia coming his main performing ground and because of the bustling jazz scene in the city collaborations took place with Canadian performers such as pianist Paul Plimley and drummers Greg Simpson and Bill Grauss. Walter Zuber Armstrong went on to collaborate with Steve Lacy on two records in October 1979 which were recorded in Amsterdam, Holland, these sessions are now considered by many free jazz fans to be Zuber Armstrong's finest recordings. Another collaboration came out of a performance in the early 1980s at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis with the reclusive multi-instrumentalist and improviser Milo Fine.

Zuber Armstrong largely supported himself by teaching, he taught at Western Washington University in Bellingham and at Fairhaven College. In the late 1990s he gave his last concerts, which where celebrations in Bellingham in honor of Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr.

Death
Walter Zuber Armstrong died on 2nd March 1998 in in Bellingham, WA. He is survived by his daughter, Jacqueline Armstrong; His sister, Virginia Hurst and two brothers, Genorace and Edward as well as two grandchildren.

Discography
Alpha and Omega (1973)

Hitana (1975)

High Places (1977)

Alter Ego with Steve Lacy (1979)

Call Notes with Steve Lacy (1980)

Live at Walker Art Center with Milo Fine (1982)