Rashied Ali

Bio:

Rashied Ali is a progenitor and leading exponent of multidirectional rhythms/polytonal percussion. A student of Philly Joe Jones and an admirer of Art Blakey, Ali developed the style known as "free jazz" drumming, which liberates the percussionist from the role of human metronome. The drummer interfaces both rhythmically and melodically with the music, utilizing meter and sound in a unique fashion. This allows the percussionist to participate in the music in a harmonic sense, coloring both the rhythm and tonality with his personal perception. By adding his voice to the ensemble, the percussionist becomes an equal in the melodics of collective musical creation rather than a "pot banger" who keeps the others all playing at the same speed. Considered radical in the 1960s and scorned by the mediocre, multidirectional rhythms, polytonal drumming is now the landmark of the jazz percussionist.

A Philadelphia native, Rashied Ali began his percussion career in the U.S. Army and started gigging with rhythm and blues and rock groups when he returned from the service. Cutting his musical teeth with local Philly R&B groups, such as Dick Hart & the Heartaches, Big Maybelle and Lin Holt, Rashied gradually moved on to play in the local jazz scene with such notables as Lee Morgan, Don Patterson and Jimmy Smith.

Early in the 1960s the Big Apple beckoned, and soon Rashied Ali was a fixture of the avant-garde jazz scene, backing up the excursions of such musical free spirits as Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Paul Bley, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon and Albert Ayler. It was during this period that Rashied Ali made his first major recording (On This Night with Archie Shepp, on the Impulse label) and began to sit in with John Coltrane's group at the Half Note and other clubs around Manhattan. In November 1965 John Coltrane decided to use a two-drummer format for a gig at the Village Gate; the percussionist Trane chose to complement the already legendary Elvin Jones was Rashied Ali. Thus began a musical odyssey whose reverberations are still felt in the music today--Trane probing the outer harmonic limits and changing the melodic language of jazz while Rashied Ali turned the drum kit into a multi-rhythmic, polytonal propellant, helping fuel Coltrane's flights of free jazz fancy. The rolling, emotion-piercing music generated by the Coltrane/Ali association is still being discussed, analyzed, reviewed and enjoyed in awe as the new compact disk format introduces the era to a new host of the sonically aware.

After Coltrane's passing in 1967, Rashied Ali headed for Europe, where he gigged in Copenhagen, Germany and Sweden before settling in for a study period with Philly Joe Jones in England. Upon his return from the continent, Rashied Ali resumed his place at the forefront of New York's music scene, working and recording with the likes of Jackie McLean, Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Gary Bartz, Dewey Redman and others too numerous to mention here.

In response to the decaying New York jazz scene in the early 1970s, Rashied Ali opened the loft-jazz club, Ali's Alley, in 1973 and also established a companion enterprise, Survival Records. Ali's Alley began as a musical outlet for New York avant-garde but soon became a melting pot of jazz styles. Although the Alley closed in 1979, its legacy continues in the New York jazz scene and Rashied Ali has been busy gigging with a virtual Who's Who in jazz, refining his music and encouraging a host of younger musicians.

In the '80s and '90s, his presence on the scene was sporadic; he performed on occasion with bassist Jaco Pastorius, and recorded with tenor saxophonist David Murray. In 1987 he recorded and performed as a member of the group Phalanx, with guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer, tenor saxophonist George Adams, and bassist Sirone. Also in that year Rashied formed a group with multi-instrumentalist Arthur Rhames, saxophonist Antoine Roney, bassist Tyler Mitchell, and pianist Greg Murphy. In 1991, he made the critically acclaimed album Touchin' on Trane with bassist William Parker and tenor saxophonist Charles Gayle, a group called By Any Means that was formed in the ‘80s and continues to perform today. In the early ‘90s he formed a quintet with Ravi Coltrane, Matt Garrison, Greg Murphy and guitarist Gene Ess, releasing their 1992 recording No One in Particular in 2001. One tour of France with this group featured Carlos Santana and Archie Shepp. The '90s also found Ali at the helm of the band, Prima Materia, an ensemble dedicated to interpreting the late works of Coltrane and Albert Ayler. This group has toured extensively, and in 1994, 1995, and 1996, they recorded Peace on Earth, Meditations, and Bells for the Knitting Factory Works label. He also appeared on more than half-a-dozen discs with guitarist Tisziji Muñoz – the majority of which were recorded in Rashied’s own Survival Studios.

In 2003 Rashied formed his current working group, simply called The Rashied Ali Quintet. In 2006 they released two CDs – Judgment Day Vol. 1 and Judgment Day Vol. 2, both of which received significant national airplay and volumes of critical acclaim. This group, which Jazz Times critic Bill Milkowski calls “…one of the more potent working quintets in jazz today,” is playing a style that combines modern post-bop with Ali's trademark free jazz. This group tours frequently, and may very well be pointing stylistically in the direction of jazz to come.

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RASHIED ALI QUINTET
JUDGMENT DAY VOL. 2
..Click here to purchase mp3s..

Member Since:

December 29, 2005

Members:

RASHIED ALI QUINTET:
Rashied Ali (Drums), Josh Evans (Trumpet), Lawrence Clark (Tenor Sax), Greg Murphy (Piano), Joris Teepe (Bass)

Influences:

BY ANY MEANS:
Rashied Ali (Drums), Charles Gayle (Tenor Sax & Piano), William Parker (Double Bass)

Sounds Like:

BUY RASHIED ALI QUINTET: Live In Europe



Buy MP3s at new Online Store Jazzintensity.com

BUY RASHIED ALI QUINTET: Judgment Day Vol. 1



Buy MP3s at new Online Store Jazzintensity.com

BUY RASHIED ALI QUINTET: Judgment Day Vol. 2

Drummer For Coltrane Keeps Jazz Legacy Alive - 10/9/07
Bryan Gibel - Daily Lobo
The University of New Mexico

John Coltrane died in 1967, but his music lived on at an Albuquerque festival held over the weekend. The Creative Soundspace Fall Festival at the Outpost Performance Space celebrated Coltrane's mark on the U.S. and abroad. It focused on Coltrane as a composer and saxophonist who still impacts jazz today, Outpost Executive Director Tom Guralnick said. "He's one of the most important people in the history of jazz," Guralnick said. "He has a legacy of pushing the music forward to unexplored territories. That was 40 years ago, and his music still stands out as something that remains unmatched, fresh and innovative to this day.

"The festival kicked off Thursday with a performance by the Rashied Ali Quintet. Ali was one of Coltrane's drummers during the two years preceding his death. Ali and his group played two sets to a full house, featuring originals, extended improvisations and avant-garde jazz compositions. While only a few of the songs were written by Coltrane, Ali said his influence permeated the group's performance.

"John Coltrane was my guru, man," Ali said. "He was the father of this whole movement that we were playing, you know. He's always been that inspiration that kind of drives you to do things. "In his later years, Coltrane was known for playing frenetic, freewheeling improvisations that some critics found busy and inaccessible.

During his Outpost set, Ali sometimes played so fast that his drumsticks resembled hummingbirds hovering above his kit. Ali's polyrhythmic playing was a multidimensional sonic onslaught, incorporating beats that were simultaneously calm and thunderous, staccato and prolonged. But the music balanced structured composition and free improvisation, Ali said. "I really feel like I can play any song and make it compatible with what I'm doing, like, the song is the vehicle, more or less, just to get me into the groove," he said. "Sometimes I'm just trying to play all the music at the same time and just move it around. One minute, it sounds like it's swinging. One minute, it sounds like it's open. One minute, it sounds like it's neither here nor there."

Ali was accompanied by Lawrence Clark on saxophone, Josh Evans on trumpet, Greg Murphy on piano and Joris Teepi on bass. During an interpretation of Coltrane's "Liberia," Murphy's piano stylings stood out during a 10-minute duet with Ali. At times, Murphy struck the keys with his whole arm. At other times, he used a single finger on each hand to tap out rapid-fire notes. Ali said playing with his quintet's younger musicians keeps him at the forefront of avant-garde improvisation. "They're the cats who have the momentum," Ali said. "They try to play what they feel, not what someone else told them to play. And I like that kind of freedom."

Guralnick said the festival, held in fall and spring, doesn't always focus on jazz. Its purpose is to highlight innovative music of all forms. Coltrane continues to inspire innovative music and the evolution of avant-garde jazz, Ali said. "Things change. Right in the music, in midstream, they change," Ali said. "You keep going and you never know what you can find. We are just trying to make a difference in the music, man. That's it."

Sunday, September 23, 2007
Saturday Afternoon: The Rains Let Up! (Monterey Jazz Festival)
Posted by: Jerry Karp

In the Bill Berry Night Club venue, venerable avant-bop drummer Rashied Ali is holding forth with a fiery quintet.

Ali, of course, is one of the trailblazers of the new wave jazz movement of the 60s, and was the drummer for some of John Coltrane's most far-reaching late-career explorations. I am primed for a full-on explosion of in-your-face jazz and this band is just the ticket.

Ali's attack is still a full-throttle rocket blast, on fire but without a trace of bombast. The band, led by and excellent horn tandem of saxophonist Lawrence Clark and trumpeter Josh Evans, offers high-octane post bop, which, again, is just what I am looking for.

A number Ali introduces as the title track to the band's new CD, "Judgment Day," is a great example of what the band has to offer. It's a fast-tempo cooker, and Evans steps forward with an extended solo. Evans' ideas fly fast and furious. He uses the highest ranges of his horn with aplomb, but judiciously, only to add emphasis at the end of an idea.

The solo is relentless but rarely repetitive, and when Evans steps aside for Clark, you feel he has still not exhausted everything he has to say here. Clark, though, takes up the gauntlet quickly, throwing clouds of notes across the hall, squealing and groaning only just enough to craft mid-stream commentary on his own hard charges.

Pianist Greg Murphy sweeps in next, with flowing, two-handed flashes alternating heat and cool.

Ah, yes. This is what I needed.

Record Label:

Survival Records