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.
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