Reviews that mention Rashied Ali
February 23, 2020
Capricorn Moon to Juba Lee Revisited
ezz-thetics 1102
More than 50 years after they were first issued these advanced Jazz sessions which may have sounded transgressive at the time are now relatively mainstream, Freebop would be the proper designation. Additionally while the four tracks came out on two LPs by the under-rated alto saxophonist Marion Brown (1931-2010), they could easily be attributed to trumpeter Alan Shorter (1932-1988), who composed two of the four tunes.
A peripheral figure among FreeJazzers, Shorter recorded with the likes of Archie Shepp and François Tusques in the US and France, but after a period of inactivity died in obscurity. In contrast Brown who was also an academic played and theorized until the end of his life, including dates with John Coltrane, Shepp and Gunter Hampel. A lyrical player, like pianist Dave Burrell, who is featured on this CD’s final tracks, Brown had a much more varied career after he recorded his first album reissued as this date’s first two tracks. MORE
August 16, 2016
Songlines
Trost TR 138
Brötzmann/Uuskyla
Dead and Useless BR>
Omlott Records MLR 003 LP
Now that he’s midway through his eighth decade and having recorded a catalogue of – at best estimates – 200 discs, the parameters of German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann’s adept dexterity is more discernible. Like the Hollywood actor typecast in tough guys roles until a scholarly examination of his work demonstrated his flexibility, the saxophonist’s persona has usually been viewed through a single lens as a blood vessel-bursting hard blower. That much is true, but just as actors like Billy Bob Thornton and Jeff Goldblum have shown they can excel in comedies as well as dramas, so too does Brötzmann have a more measured and almost whimsical way of performing. That aspect has become clearer during the past decade or so. But as these earlier recorded – but recently releases – discs confirm, the reedist was no more limited to fortissimo overblowing than Clint Eastwood was only able to portray to a laconic cowpoke. MORE
January 6, 2013
Blues for Albert Ayler
ESP-Disk ESP-4068
By Ken Waxman
A saxophonist who invalidated the shibboleth that avant gardists had no jazz roots every time he put his horn to his mouth was Frank Wright (1935-1990). Born in Mississippi, and initially an R&B bassist, Wright settled in Cleveland, where under Albert Ayler’s tutelage he began playing tenor saxophone. Nicknamed “The Reverend” for his soulful style mixing the blues with tonal experiments, Wright moved to Europe in the late ‘60s, residing there until his death. MORE
June 16, 2010
Why Not?
ESP 1040
Burton Greene
Live 1965
Porter Records PRCD 4040
Alto saxophonist Marion Brown never achieved the same fame or notoriety as some of his New Thing’s contemporaries, because, as these CDs prove he was a man out of time. While Albert Ayler was destroying jazz’s most vaulted conventions with his fervid glossolalia, and Archie Shepp was attacking bourgeois conventions verbally and with his over-the-top playing, Brown, their contemporary, was gently extending the Bop tradition in a more-or-less standard format. MORE
June 16, 2010
Live 1965
Porter Records PRCD 4040
Marion Brown
Why Not?
ESP 1040
Alto saxophonist Marion Brown never achieved the same fame or notoriety as some of his New Thing’s contemporaries, because, as these CDs prove he was a man out of time. While Albert Ayler was destroying jazz’s most vaulted conventions with his fervid glossolalia, and Archie Shepp was attacking bourgeois conventions verbally and with his over-the-top playing, Brown, their contemporary, was gently extending the Bop tradition in a more-or-less standard format. MORE
August 15, 2008
Charles Gayle, William Parker & Rashied Ali
Touchin’ On Trane
Jazzwerkstatt JW024
By Any Means
Live at Crescendo
Ayler Records aylCD- 077/078
Almost 16 years to the day separate these two live sessions, yet not one member of this trio of veteran players appears to have lost his edge or gusto.
Dispelling once again the old shibboleth that jazz is a young man’s game, saxophonist Charles Gayle, 68, drummer Rashied Ali, 73, and bassist William Parker, 56, create enough fire and commitment – mixed with experience – on both sets to enliven any program of improvised music. MORE
August 15, 2008
Live at Crescendo
Ayler Records aylCD- 077/078
Charles Gayle, William Parker & Rashied Ali
Touchin’ On Trane
Jazzwerkstatt JW024
Almost 16 years to the day separate these two live sessions, yet not one member of this trio of veteran players appears to have lost his edge or gusto.
Dispelling once again the old shibboleth that jazz is a young man’s game, saxophonist Charles Gayle, 68, drummer Rashied Ali, 73, and bassist William Parker, 56, create enough fire and commitment – mixed with experience – on both sets to enliven any program of improvised music. MORE
May 12, 2006
Art of Jazz Organization Aims To Raise Jazz’s Profile in Canada
for CODA
Flautist Jane Bunnett and singer Bonnie Lester want to make things perfectly clear. Even though their organization, the Art of Jazz (AOJ), is putting together a five-day celebration of jazz and its master musicians in Toronto in May, AOJ is much more than that.
While the celebration that takes place in Toronto’s Distillery District May 17 to May 21 serves as an introduction to AOJ, the group is formulating ambitious plans for educational and outreach programs as well as regular concerts throughout the year. MORE
October 8, 2001
The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording
Impulse! 314 589 120-2
What's probably the most unexpected surprise about this more than 34-year-old music recorded by saxophonist John Coltrane final band at the Olatunji Center of African Culture in Harlem, and finally legitimately released, is just how powerful it is.
Although taped just three months before he died of liver cancer at 40, when the saxophonist was so out of sorts that he had to play sitting down, you'd never realize the extent of his infirmity from this performance.
Coltrane was improvising at the same exalted level on this April afternoon in 1967 as well as he ever he did during most of his short life. With such seem-bursting compatriots as tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Rashied Ali could he have done anything else? MORE