RIP, Rashied Ali

Just as I was reading all of the nice tributes and obits online for Les Paul I got word that Rashied Ali has passed away as well. I had the opportunity to see him perform at Toronto's Art of Jazz Celebration this past May and was BLOWN AWAY by his Quintet. It was an outdoor show and it was freezing cold for May, raining and the set (no fault of Ali's) was a good 3 hours late. It was going to take a truly amazing performance to turn my mood around. Ali managed to not only transform my mood - his music made me feel transformed, period.

I had the opportunity to shoot the show as well, and I feel very lucky to have done so.






For those unfamiliar with Rashied Ali his "official bio" described him and his work this way:

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 recent performance with his Quintet (the group I saw, with a different bass player)



Audio only, performing live with John Coltrane (probably what he was most famous for, even to this day)