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Rashied Ali
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 multirhythmic, 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.
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Continue ReadingRashied Ali Quintet: Judgment Day, Volume 1
by Erik R. Quick
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Continue ReadingRashied Ali Quintet: Judgment Day, Vol. Two
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Although rightfully revered as one of the fathers of avant-garde drumming for his role in John Coltrane's last band, Rashied Ali grew up in Philadelphia during the heyday of hard bop, so it should come as no surprise to find him at the helm of a group that reflects the influence of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Max Roach-Clifford Brown Quintet, as much as that of the freer music that flowed from the font of Coltrane. This ...
Continue ReadingRashied Ali Quintet: Judgment Day, Vol. One
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Continue ReadingJazz Musician of the Day: Rashied Ali
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All About Jazz is celebrating Rashied Ali's birthday today!
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...Rashied Ali is a progenitor and leading exponent of multidirectional rhythms/polytonal ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Rashied Ali
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Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Rashied Ali's birthday today!
JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Rashied Ali
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... more
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Rashied Ali's Last Interview (Recorded August 5, 2009) Now Available
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Michael Ricci
Drummer and composer Rashied Ali, who passed away on August 12, speaks in a 17-minute interview with pianist and composer Mika Pohjola. The interview was made on August 5, one week before Mr. Ali passed away. Mr. Ali talks about his time as John Coltrane's drummer, the music scene in the 60s, the downtown New York loft scene in the 70s when he owned the legendary jazz club Ali's Alley, and his philosophy as a music entrepreneur and a leader ...
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Rashied Ali, Free-Jazz Drummer, Dies at 76
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Michael Ricci
Rashied Ali, whose expressionistic, free-jazz drumming helped define the experimental style of John Coltrane’s final years, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 76. The cause was a heart attack, said his wife, Patricia Ali. Mr. Ali, who first encountered Coltrane in their Philadelphia neighborhood in the late 1950s, made the leap from admiration to collaboration in the mid-1960s, when he joined Elvin Jones as a second drummer with Coltrane’s ensemble at the Village Gate in November 1965. Mr. Ali recorded ...
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Rashied Ali, Jazz Drummer, Dies
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Michael Ricci
Rashied Ali, whose expressionistic, free-jazz drumming helped define the experimental style of John Coltranes final years, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 76. The cause of his death was a heart attack, his wife, Patricia Ali, said. Mr. Ali, who first encountered Coltrane in their Philadelphia neighborhood in the late 1950s, made the leap from admiration to participation in the mid-1960s, when he joined Elvin Jones as a second drummer with Coltranes ensemble at the Village Gate in November 1965 ...
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Rashied Ali
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Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Rashied Ali, a drummer who applied his advanced technique to free jazz, died today in New York. He was 76. Born Robert Patterson, Ali became a disciple and close colleague of his fellow Philadelphian John Coltrane. He played on some of the most uninhibited recordings of Coltrane's final years, including the astonishing Interstellar Space, a series of free duets. I was on a selection committee for Grammy nominations in 1974, the year Impulse! Records released Interstellar Space. Pianist Billy Taylor, ...
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Rashied Ali, an Iconic Musician, Has Left Time
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Michael Ricci
Rashied Ali, the great free jazz drummer, who is mainly known as a member of John Coltrane's last band, passed away yesterday, August 12, 2009 in New York City. In addition to Coltrane, Ali had worked with numerous musicians; Paul Bley, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, John Zorn and several generations of younger musicians. Rashied Ali, who was also an avant-garde music activist in the 70s, owned a New York downtown jazz club, Ali's Alley, which is described in his last ...
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Listen and Learn: Rashied Ali, Charles Gayle and William Parker
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Michael Ricci
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