Ethnic Heritage Ensemble

Hot ‘N’ Heavy: Live at the Ascension Loft
Delmark DE 574

lo

Groove is the one word you associate with most of the endeavors of Kahil El’Zabar. Yet while the Chicago-based percussionist has had past experience playing R&B and African music, his rhythmic mobilization is overt, but never simplistic. That’s because as a long-time member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), he has also absorbed the concepts of such cerebral thinkers as pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. Taken in their entirety therefore, the sounds of El’Zabar’s many bands meld elements of both impulses. What results is a POMO variation that unites the sacred and the secular, a concept which has long characterized Black Vernacular Music.

All that said the instrumental make-up of these two fine live CDs couldn’t be more different. Hot’N’Heavy, for instance, is the newest variant of the drummer’s 30-year-old Ethic Heritage Ensemble (EHE). Usually consisting of two horns plus El’Zabar’s percussion, this session not only adds new brassman Corey Wilkes – a trumpeter and flugelhornist who is now also a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago – but is one of those occasions when a chordal instrumental – Fareed Haque’s guitar –carries part of load. Haque, who leads his own fusion group, has played on-and-off with the EHE since the late 1990s. That’s around the period when alto and tenor saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, leader of the New Horizons Ensemble, also became the band’s sole reed player.

If this, the first CD recorded in El’Zabar’s own Chicago loft space goes down like a smooth American burgundy, then Transmigration can be compared to the effect of a large quantity of a much different carefully fermented vintage. Recorded in Bordeaux, France the year before Hot’N’Heavy, it features that city’s 39-piece Infinity Orchestra running through five El’Zabar compositions arranged by the percussionist or keyboardist Robert Irving III. Solos are divided among members of the orchestra or 2005’s version of the EHE, which then featured the percussionist – who has taught and performed at Bordeaux’s local music academy since the early 1980s – Dawkins, and Joseph Bowie on trombone and percussion.

Bowie’s showcase, “Return of the Lost Tribe” frames the boneman’s butterfat thick chromatic tone in an arrangement that’s half Gil Evans-like pastel and half hip-hop vinyl scratching plus cross-patterning percussion. As the trombonist splashes out a series of widening blats and concludes with a harshly buzzing upwards squeak, he’s echoed by pitch-sliding tones from the massed horns and vocal exhortations from El’Zabar. Succeeded by Dawkins’ reed splintering tenor saxophone cries and hand-clapping from the band members, the tune undulates to its conclusion on a sea of djembe and balafon-rhythm-filed passages.

Local players such as tenor saxophonist Arnaud Rouanet – who has adopted Energy Music to his own ends – clarinetist Jean Dousteyssier – whose split-tone texture owe little to his classical background – and the note clusters and focal-point comping of pianist Olivier Soubles, make favorable impressions at various junctures as well. Sadly, despite the near-relentless beats from the percussionists, rapping and vocalizing by designated band members makes it abundantly clear why English has remained the paramount language of popular music.

More Bordeaux-based players get exposure on the mammoth “Speaking in Tongues”, a nearly 25-minute tour-de-force which begins with a vamping balafon interlude from El’Zabar and opens up into a piano-led big band chart with contrapuntal riffing from each of the orchestra’s sections. Tenor saxophonist Karlis Vanags slides a few reed bites and honks into his otherwise mid-range exposition, while trumpeter Piero Pepin manages to be both languid and impetuous, with in-your-face ornamental note expansion segmenting his rubato phrase-making.

With 12 [!] percussionists available to provide the bottom, the undulating stop-time arrangement works its way up to a crescendo of harmonized broken chords, showcasing Pepin’s whinnying stratospheric grace note exploration. Before the diminuendo finale that involves brassy triplets, Soubles feeds a series of organic note clusters to introduce upticking saxophone solos.

El’Zabar’s decades of teaching two months a year at Bordeaux’s Academy of Music and this stint as artist-in-residence proves that he has the skills to allow a massive ensemble to swing with a certain freedom. Nowhere however does it seem that any one the 39 natives – or the guests – can forget his academic training long enough to delve into unfettered improvisation.

Just as rhythmically propulsive, but freer in conception, is the quartet work on Hot’N’Heavy. On the five tunes here, El’Zabar favors the conga-like textures of his earth drum and his resonating berimbau. Decidedly freeboppish – and practically mainstream – when improvising on both his saxophones, Dawkins plays early John Coltrane to Corey Wilkes’ late period Miles Davis.

Favoring electronic pick-ups which often make his solos sound like flanging guitar-pedal extensions, the trumpeter also references the tradition, as when a quote from “Summertime” sums up his solo on “Major to Minor”, which otherwise has been characterized by ornamental triplets. The percussionist’s popping, pumping, vocalizing and cop-whistle shrills fill out much of the remaining space along with the guitarist’s claw-hammer-style variations.

Switching between electric and acoustic axes, Haque quietly accompanies El’Zabar’s chanting with folksy block chords. But when Wilkes spits out blurry oscillations from both his horns simultaneously, the guitarist uses slurred fingering coupled with rhythmic licks à la Herb Ellis to make his own point.

Ringing flamenco-style strumming from the guitarist, looser guttural cries and glottal tension-filed overblowing from the reedist characterize other tracks. So do hand percussion thwacks that are as much moderato as montuno. Yet they allow El’Zabar to highlight the African heritage of Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Probably the most realized tune is “MT”, which honors the recently deceased trumpeter and AACM stalwart Malachi Thompson. On top of shekere textures and a kalimba ostinato from the percussionist, Haque introduces ice-pick sharp licks, Dawkins produces split-tone arpeggios from his alto sax and Wilkes melds high-pitched chromatic coloration and open-horn hand-fanning. Ending with a triumphant tonal upturn, El’Zabar preceding foot stomps, vocalizing and highly percussive kalimba solo suggests what could have happened if Lionel Hampton had been a showman in South West Africa.

For AACM and El’Zabar followers, both CDs offer more instances of the percussionist’s rhythmically showy, yet imaginative musical sound. The quartet session may have a smidgen of an edge over the big band though, since it’s more recent and was recorded in the trapman’s home-town space.

--Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Transmigration: 1. Soul to Groove 2. Speaking in Tongues 3. Transmigration 4. Nu Art Claiming Earth 5. Return of the Lost Tribe

Personnel: Transmigration: Joseph Bowie (trombone); Ernest Dawkins (alto and tenor saxophones) and Kahil El’Zabar (kalimba) plus the Infinity Orchestra: Fabien Deyts, Piero Pepin, Vincent Fauguet and Dominique Darrouzet (trumpets); Jérémi Ortal, Guillaume Ballin and Guillaume Pique (trombones); Norris Kolmanis and Benôit Berthe (saxophones); Ilyes Ferera (alto saxophone); Arnaud Rouanet, Karlis Vangas and Marc Closier (tenor saxophones); Grat Martinez (baritone saxophone); Jean Dousteyssier (clarinet); Christian Patzer (flute); Olivier Soubles (piano); Clément Billardello and Xavier Corpis (guitars); Xavier Hayet (bass); Hervé Mignon (electric bass); Philippe Gaubert, Yoann Sheidt and Antonin Mallaret (drums); Marianne Thiebaut, Boudji Abasse and Manue Peran (djembes); Yacouba Silla (djembe and balafon); Yvan Chambard (balafon and percussion); Nicolas Perrin (dj turntablist); Stépane Castanet (dj); Nathalie Gaucher and Taro Ochiai (vocals) and Bindi Mahamat and Rémi Bernis (vocal rap)

Track Listing: Hot: 1. Major to Minor 2. MT 3. Hot ‘N’ Heavy 4. There Is a Place 5. Black as Vera Cruz

Personnel: Hot: Corey Wilkes (trumpet, flugelhorn and percussion); Ernest “Khabeer” Dawkins (alto and tenor saxophones and percussion); Fareed Haque (electric and acoustic guitars) and Kahil El’Zabar (drums, earth drums and kalimba)

November 8, 2007

Kahil El’Zabar’s Infinity Orchestra

Transmigration
Delmark DE 576

Groove is the one word you associate with most of the endeavors of Kahil El’Zabar. Yet while the Chicago-based percussionist has had past experience playing R&B and African music, his rhythmic mobilization is overt, but never simplistic. That’s because as a long-time member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), he has also absorbed the concepts of such cerebral thinkers as pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. Taken in their entirety therefore, the sounds of El’Zabar’s many bands meld elements of both impulses. What results is a POMO variation that unites the sacred and the secular, a concept which has long characterized Black Vernacular Music.

All that said the instrumental make-up of these two fine live CDs couldn’t be more different. Hot’N’Heavy, for instance, is the newest variant of the drummer’s 30-year-old Ethic Heritage Ensemble (EHE). Usually consisting of two horns plus El’Zabar’s percussion, this session not only adds new brassman Corey Wilkes – a trumpeter and flugelhornist who is now also a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago – but is one of those occasions when a chordal instrumental – Fareed Haque’s guitar –carries part of load. Haque, who leads his own fusion group, has played on-and-off with the EHE since the late 1990s. That’s around the period when alto and tenor saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, leader of the New Horizons Ensemble, also became the band’s sole reed player.

If this, the first CD recorded in El’Zabar’s own Chicago loft space goes down like a smooth American burgundy, then Transmigration can be compared to the effect of a large quantity of a much different carefully fermented vintage. Recorded in Bordeaux, France the year before Hot’N’Heavy, it features that city’s 39-piece Infinity Orchestra running through five El’Zabar compositions arranged by the percussionist or keyboardist Robert Irving III. Solos are divided among members of the orchestra or 2005’s version of the EHE, which then featured the percussionist – who has taught and performed at Bordeaux’s local music academy since the early 1980s – Dawkins, and Joseph Bowie on trombone and percussion.

Bowie’s showcase, “Return of the Lost Tribe” frames the boneman’s butterfat thick chromatic tone in an arrangement that’s half Gil Evans-like pastel and half hip-hop vinyl scratching plus cross-patterning percussion. As the trombonist splashes out a series of widening blats and concludes with a harshly buzzing upwards squeak, he’s echoed by pitch-sliding tones from the massed horns and vocal exhortations from El’Zabar. Succeeded by Dawkins’ reed splintering tenor saxophone cries and hand-clapping from the band members, the tune undulates to its conclusion on a sea of djembe and balafon-rhythm-filed passages.

Local players such as tenor saxophonist Arnaud Rouanet – who has adopted Energy Music to his own ends – clarinetist Jean Dousteyssier – whose split-tone texture owe little to his classical background – and the note clusters and focal-point comping of pianist Olivier Soubles, make favorable impressions at various junctures as well. Sadly, despite the near-relentless beats from the percussionists, rapping and vocalizing by designated band members makes it abundantly clear why English has remained the paramount language of popular music.

More Bordeaux-based players get exposure on the mammoth “Speaking in Tongues”, a nearly 25-minute tour-de-force which begins with a vamping balafon interlude from El’Zabar and opens up into a piano-led big band chart with contrapuntal riffing from each of the orchestra’s sections. Tenor saxophonist Karlis Vanags slides a few reed bites and honks into his otherwise mid-range exposition, while trumpeter Piero Pepin manages to be both languid and impetuous, with in-your-face ornamental note expansion segmenting his rubato phrase-making.

With 12 [!] percussionists available to provide the bottom, the undulating stop-time arrangement works its way up to a crescendo of harmonized broken chords, showcasing Pepin’s whinnying stratospheric grace note exploration. Before the diminuendo finale that involves brassy triplets, Soubles feeds a series of organic note clusters to introduce upticking saxophone solos.

El’Zabar’s decades of teaching two months a year at Bordeaux’s Academy of Music and this stint as artist-in-residence proves that he has the skills to allow a massive ensemble to swing with a certain freedom. Nowhere however does it seem that any one the 39 natives – or the guests – can forget his academic training long enough to delve into unfettered improvisation.

Just as rhythmically propulsive, but freer in conception, is the quartet work on Hot’N’Heavy. On the five tunes here, El’Zabar favors the conga-like textures of his earth drum and his resonating berimbau. Decidedly freeboppish – and practically mainstream – when improvising on both his saxophones, Dawkins plays early John Coltrane to Corey Wilkes’ late period Miles Davis.

Favoring electronic pick-ups which often make his solos sound like flanging guitar-pedal extensions, the trumpeter also references the tradition, as when a quote from “Summertime” sums up his solo on “Major to Minor”, which otherwise has been characterized by ornamental triplets. The percussionist’s popping, pumping, vocalizing and cop-whistle shrills fill out much of the remaining space along with the guitarist’s claw-hammer-style variations.

Switching between electric and acoustic axes, Haque quietly accompanies El’Zabar’s chanting with folksy block chords. But when Wilkes spits out blurry oscillations from both his horns simultaneously, the guitarist uses slurred fingering coupled with rhythmic licks à la Herb Ellis to make his own point.

Ringing flamenco-style strumming from the guitarist, looser guttural cries and glottal tension-filed overblowing from the reedist characterize other tracks. So do hand percussion thwacks that are as much moderato as montuno. Yet they allow El’Zabar to highlight the African heritage of Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Probably the most realized tune is “MT”, which honors the recently deceased trumpeter and AACM stalwart Malachi Thompson. On top of shekere textures and a kalimba ostinato from the percussionist, Haque introduces ice-pick sharp licks, Dawkins produces split-tone arpeggios from his alto sax and Wilkes melds high-pitched chromatic coloration and open-horn hand-fanning. Ending with a triumphant tonal upturn, El’Zabar preceding foot stomps, vocalizing and highly percussive kalimba solo suggests what could have happened if Lionel Hampton had been a showman in South West Africa.

For AACM and El’Zabar followers, both CDs offer more instances of the percussionist’s rhythmically showy, yet imaginative musical sound. The quartet session may have a smidgen of an edge over the big band though, since it’s more recent and was recorded in the trapman’s home-town space.

--Ken Waxman

.

Track Listing: Transmigration: 1. Soul to Groove 2. Speaking in Tongues 3. Transmigration 4. Nu Art Claiming Earth 5. Return of the Lost Tribe

Personnel: Transmigration: Joseph Bowie (trombone); Ernest Dawkins (alto and tenor saxophones) and Kahil El’Zabar (kalimba) plus the Infinity Orchestra: Fabien Deyts, Piero Pepin, Vincent Fauguet and Dominique Darrouzet (trumpets); Jérémi Ortal, Guillaume Ballin and Guillaume Pique (trombones); Norris Kolmanis and Benôit Berthe (saxophones); Ilyes Ferera (alto saxophone); Arnaud Rouanet, Karlis Vangas and Marc Closier (tenor saxophones); Grat Martinez (baritone saxophone); Jean Dousteyssier (clarinet); Christian Patzer (flute); Olivier Soubles (piano); Clément Billardello and Xavier Corpis (guitars); Xavier Hayet (bass); Hervé Mignon (electric bass); Philippe Gaubert, Yoann Sheidt and Antonin Mallaret (drums); Marianne Thiebaut, Boudji Abasse and Manue Peran (djembes); Yacouba Silla (djembe and balafon); Yvan Chambard (balafon and percussion); Nicolas Perrin (dj turntablist); Stépane Castanet (dj); Nathalie Gaucher and Taro Ochiai (vocals) and Bindi Mahamat and Rémi Bernis (vocal rap)

Track Listing: Hot: 1. Major to Minor 2. MT 3. Hot ‘N’ Heavy 4. There Is a Place 5. Black as Vera Cruz

Personnel: Hot: Corey Wilkes (trumpet, flugelhorn and percussion); Ernest “Khabeer” Dawkins (alto and tenor saxophones and percussion); Fareed Haque (electric and acoustic guitars) and Kahil El’Zabar (drums, earth drums and kalimba)

November 8, 2007

AHMED ABDULLAH’S EBONIC TONES

Tara’s Song
TUM CD009

KAHIL EL’ZABAR'S RITUAL TRIO/BILLY BANG
Live At The River East Art Center
Delmark DE-566

Recorded in different cities seven months apart, these CDs are connected by the presence of violinist Billy Bang and a profound respect for all variations of Black improvised music.

In addition to two originals by Brooklyn-based trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah, Tara’s Song is a compendium of hip heads from Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra and others. In many ways a showcase for the percussion implements of Chicago’s Kahil El’Zabar, Live At The River East Art Center, takes its inspiration from the drummer’s twin influences, Pan-Africanism and the city’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Neither CD lacks animation, and it’s a tribute to the Ebonic Tones that the nine songs the band plays in a studio don’t sound any less “live” than the five recorded by the Ritual Trio in concert. If there’s any overriding complaint about either session it’s that both groups adhere a little too closely to the timeworn head-solo-solo-head formula. But what they lack in original arrangements, they more than make up with polyrhythmic fire.

Although Bang is odd man out in two more-or-less established bands, he has such a long history with most of the other players as to fit tongue-in-groove when the music starts. He and Adullah were both in the Sun Ra Arkestra for a time and first recorded together more than 20 years ago. Drummer Andrei Strobert, who is also a producer and recording engineer, recorded Sun Ra, among many other musicians; and even bassist Alex Blake, best-known for his 30-year association with pianist Randy Weston, played with Ra at one point. Detroit-born baritone saxophonist Alex Harding is younger than the others, but besides his other gigs is a member of the post-Ra Arkestra under Marshal Allen’s direction.

Bang’s association with the Ritual Trio goes back to another live recording date with the band in 1994, since then he has often played in duo and other situations with leader El’Zabar. One of Chicago’s master improvisers, tenor saxophonist Ari Brown can hold his own with anyone from AACMers, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams to reedist Anthony Braxton, and excitingly often combines tones with Bang’s lines here. Bassist Yosef Ben Israel, who usually powers Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons band, has replaced the late Malachi Favors in this group. Favors is saluted in two of the compositions here.

Favors’ main group, The Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC) was one of the first to reflect the AACM ethos and the primacy of jazz that wasn’t made in New York. Instructively, Abdullah who states that “I have never believed in any one city being the origin of this music” pays tribute to a clutch of modern thinkers from elsewhere on TARA’S SONG.

Not only does the band honor Fort Worth, Tex.-born Coleman, Memphis-born Frank Lowe – another long-time Bang associate – and Ra whose roots were variously Birmingham, Ala., Chicago and Saturn, but it also doesn’t neglect less acknowledged traditions. “Iko Iko”, the traditional New Orleans chant, featuring Abdullah on trumpet and vocals, continuo honks from Harding and Bang sounding as if he’s playing a Caribbean mandolin, is a rousing postlude. More pointedly the program begins with a respectful reading of Pensacola, Fla.-born Gigi Gyrce’s “Sans Souci”. Underappreciated in the 1950s, Ebonic Tone’s arrangement shows off the swinging sophistication of this bop-tinged original.

Other tunes confirm this link between the primeval and the progressive. Lowe’s “Nothing but Love”, for instance, is suspended between Second Line march and dance-like calypso with a back beat. Blake appears to be playing an electric bass, Strobert contributes binary bounces and Harding’s solo includes cunning, understated flutter-tonguing and snorts. “Blue Monk” gets an almost Dixieland arrangement with the fiddler double stopping and the horn men crating tremolo obbligatos.

Even a nearly 13-minute version of Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” is launched with Latinesque, matching band beats and call-and-response patterns between trumpet and violin. Given enough space, Harding growls and keens, thrusting out repeated altissimo runs if he was jazz-R&B bari man Leo Parker; while the trumpeter brassily breaks the melody into partials and squeezed counter tones and Bang plays either country hoedown vibrations portamento or double- and triple-stopping sweeps and swoops.

Abdullah’s “The Cave” takes all these influences one step further. Programmatic, throughout it’s almost 14½ minutes, the theme redeploys from languendo to agitato and back again, with some of the voicing reminiscent of the low-flame tone poems saxophonist Gyrce used to write for himself and trumpeter Art Farmer. Earthier than Gyrce, the baritonist creates a guttural , raspy tremolo solo – without neglecting the basso timbre of the beast – while the trumpeter’s double-tongued, chromatic flourishes take nothing from Farmer. Then there’s Bang’s slithering, triple-stopping movement. By the finale, it’s obvious this cave encompasses Sun Ra-like polyharmony, as well as spikier, serpentine solo lines.

Bang’s bravura and virtuosity is confirmed on the fewer, longer selections of the other CD. With El’Zabar exercising himself on congas, kalimba and ankle tambourine however, the roots on display take in African counter-rhythms as well as polyphonic complications. Several of the compositions gain their shape from El’Zabar’s thumb piano, with off-kilter torque from Bang and slurry tremolo lines from Brown.

Since both the introductory “Big M” and the final “Oof” are written for and dedicated to Favors, the trio’s new bass man, Israel may have felt a draft. But he maintains an unruffled composure throughout and unhurriedly exposes hidden parts of the bull fiddle below the bridge and elsewhere when he takes his solo on the last number.

Like Abdullah, El’Zabar sings enthusiastically if not always melodiously, though his raison d’etre is rhythm not the poetics of Ra which the trumpeter quotes. Sometimes, the percussionist’s vocalizing is a tinge unsettling as when his grunts and whines accompany the saxophonist’s Tranesque exploration of the theme on the percussionist-penned “Return of the Lost Tribe”.

Here and on his own “Where Do You Want To Go?” Brown’s half-Swing Era smoothness and half-South Side AACM atonality harmonizes and amplifies Bang’s brazen sawing. The second tune is notable not only for Brown’s integration of licks from “Afro Blue” into his solo, but also for a dynamic display of concussive polyrhythmic strength from the El’Zabar on congas.

More a foot-tapper than a dirge, “Oof” knits together many of the themes which characterized Favors’ life with the AACM and AEC. Besides Israel’s abrasive runs, there’s more kalimba layering, and times when the violinist shrills double- and triple-stops with the saxophonist playing sensitive accompaniment – then they reverse roles. On his own, Brown buzzes double tones like an old-time blues singer, only gradually making the sounds broader and deeper. He’s joined by El’Zabar incessantly repeating “big Favors” and other phrases with different inflections and volumes, as if he was a gospel preacher, feeling the spirit in the midst of a sermon.

Both captivating CDs offer views of advanced/traditional Black improvised music, with Tara’s Song having a bit of an edge because its arrangements allow a multiplicity of voices to be heard more clearly.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Tara: 1. Sans Souci 2. Lonely Woman 3. Tara's Song 4. Nothing but Love 5. Tapestry 6. Blue Monk 7. Fate in a Pleasant Mood 8. The Cave 9. Iko Iko

Personnel: Tara: Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet and vocals); Alex Harding (baritone saxophone); Billy Bang (violin); Alex Blake (bass); Andrei Strobert (drums)

Track Listing: Live: 1. Big M 2. Return of the Lost Tribe 3. Where Do You Want To Go? 4. Be Exciting (Kahil Testifies) 5. Oof

Personnel: Live: Ari Brown (tenor saxophone); Billy Bang (violin); Yosef Ben Israel (bass); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, percussion and kalimba)

January 16, 2006

COOPER-MOORE & ASSIF TSAHAR

Tells Untold
Hopscotch Records HOP30

KAHIL EL’ZABAR & DAVID MURRAY
We Is
Delmark DE-557

Reeds and miscellaneous instruments, especially percussion, figure in these improv/roots duo sessions. Multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar from Chicago is as expert in relating African rhythmic variations to jazz as New York multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore is in adapting temporal Black timbres to improvisations.

Complementing each man’s beat sophistication is, in El’Zabar’s case the tenor saxophone and bass clarinet of Paris resident David Murray, while Cooper-Moore’s partner is Israeli-born Assif Tsahar, whose proficiency on Murray’s chosen instruments extends to additional skills playing muzmar or Arabic oboe, acoustic guitar and thumb piano. Here El’Zabar also offers variations on the batà and thumb piano as well as the regular traps set, while on TELLS UNTOLD, Moore mixes virtuosity on ethnic instruments like the harp, shofar, deedly-bo and mouth-bow with outings on flute, synthesizer and others.

A live session, the five tracks on WE IS take elements from both the jazz and ethnic parts of the two world travelers’ identities. Overall the mood is groove-based and bluesy. No less rhythmically formidable, the other CD is preeminently a studio session, with audio mixing overdubbing and sampling utilized to allow each of the players to perform on more than one of his instruments if he feels the track calls for it. In the end this gives TELLS UNTOLD a wider range of moods than WE IS.

Not that anything could have matched the unbridled enthusiasm with which El’Zabar and Murray’s live performance was greeted. Over the course of five extended compositions, they start in the pocket and don’t quit until they play an encore. Along the way Murray varies his output from reed-shredding altissimo squeals to pulsating honks and smears. Considering he has recorded in every context, from near-R&B to arranged balladic excursions to experimental blowouts to collaborations with African griots, the transitions are seamless and his confidence is unshakable.

As much a showman as a shaman – Cooper-Moore shares this trait – El’Zabar, who studied drumming in Africa and is a longtime Association for the Advancement of Creative Music member, revels in versatility. While pounding what sound like batà and djembe drums, creating single strokes and double pulses, he vocalizes. Muttered and bellowed, the result takes in aspects of tribal chants, work songs, Calypso word play, R&B and, on “One World Family” folksy affirmation.

Singing in a pleasant tenor voice, his bell shaking and tambourine rattling add a populist tinge to Murray’s bass clarinet playing, which exploits all the instrument’s registers to comment on the tune and dialogue with the singer. Building his solos out of tongue slaps, tongue stops and key percussion, the reedist squeals, squeaks, sweeps and trills on one hand and lets loose with bottom-pressured arpeggios at another time.

Out-and-out experimentation appears on the title tune with El’Zabar on the traps set feeding ruffs, flams and bounces to the saxman. Proving he can still get worked up to a near ecstatic state in the right circumstances, Murray spins harsh cadences and swooping arpeggios, and sails into false registers. Much of the time he spins out irregular variations that sound both the notes and their vibrated nodes as he plays.

The musicians’ many identities are on show on “Blues Affirmation”, a more than 18-minute Africanized blues. Following a thumb piano intro and the percussionist scat singing, Murray enters as a breathy Ben Webster clone but soon snorts out harsh, guttural snarls and treetop squeals. Vocalizing as if John Lee Hooker had grown up in rural Mali, El’Zabar and the saxophonist begin trading vocal-and-instrument riffs with marimba-like resonation on naturally amplified wooden keys the only backing. Climax is the vocalist growling and squeezing half-expressed accents from his throat as the underlay of thinning tenor sax obbligatos smooth out to reference the Swing era reed playing first introduced at the top.

No slouch when it comes to playing his tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, Tsahar also takes on many persona on TELLS UNTOLD’s nine tracks. Studio technology allows him to play two or more of his instruments at the same time. Adding to all this, and often double tracked as well, is Cooper-Moore whose collection of ethnic, vernacular, legit and hand-made instruments provides all the extra textures you could want.

Pastoral, finger picking acoustic guitar lines played by Tsahar, matched with recital-quality flute from Cooper-Moore begin the CD’s almost 13½-minute title track. Soon enough though, the sounds of a breathy bass clarinet (Tsahar) and drums (Cooper-Moore) are also heard, succeeded by wiggling trills from the tenor, this time matched with rattles (Cooper-Moore) and thumb piano (Tsahar). Midway through, the reedist starts testifying on the muzmar or Arabic oboe until bop drumming and snorting saxophone tones reappear to face off, match up, fade and rise. Is this a comment on the connection between Equatorial Africa, the Maghreb and American improv? Finally, the concentrated twanging of the single string deedly-bo is superseded by a reprise of the initial saxophone line.

This sort of multi-instrumentation, enhanced by audio technology, is featured on most other tracks. Although an outing like “The Hunt’”, except for a bit of thumb piano at the beginning and bell ringing at the end, is mostly a tenor-drums duo. It proves that these players can be as passionate and New-Thingy as Murray and El’Zabar if they wish.

More characteristic are pieces like “Oracles” and “The Procession”, which display Cooper-Moore’s carpenter’s shed full of obscure and original instruments to best advantage.

“Oracles” features either the deedly-bo or the mouth-bow being stretched like a gigantic elastic band, produces a scouring tone that’s both elastic and abrasive. On top of this Tsahar, on tenor, expels distinctive multiphonics, breaking them apart and combing them with the latex lacerations for a perfect union of experimental and primitive tones.

In contrast, “The Procession” features a bouncy march-like tempo that suggests market day in an African village. Yet here the rhythmic component doesn’t just arise from Cooper-Moore’s drums, harp and deedly-bo. Pushing aside a flute-thumb piano counter melody, the reedist’s concentrated squeaks and squeals show that this sort of extended technique can have a rhythmic as well an abrasive function.

Whether your interest is in traditional groove-oriented modernism or multi-faceted primitivism extended with technology, you’ll find much to like in both of these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: We: 1. Groove Allure 2. We Is 3. Blues Affirmation 4. One World Family 5. Sweet Meat

Personnel: We: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, bells, batà, djembe, thumb piano and other percussion plus vocals)

Track Listing: Tells: 1. The Eight 2. Tribes Gathering 3. Oracles 4. The Hunt 5.Tells Untold 6. Deviations 7. Forlorn 8. Another World Another Time 9. The Procession

Personnel: Tells: Assif Tsahar (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, acoustic guitar, muzmar and thumb piano); Cooper-Moore (harp, ashimba xylophone, drums, flute, deedly-bo, mouth-bow, twiner, shofar, synthesizer and the bell)

June 20, 2005

TRI-FACTOR

If You Believe…
8th Harmonic Breakdown 8THHB 80004

KAHIL EL’ZABAR
Love Outside of Dreams
Delmark DG-541

Leading two regular bands obviously isn’t enough for Chicago-based multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar. Not only has he written poetry and film scores, taught at nearby universities and initiated arts presentations, but he’s also put together a series of ad-hoc musical groups.

Besides his regularly constituted Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (EHE) and Ritual Trio, he also organized the Bright Moments combo filled with Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians veterans and recorded exciting projects with 1960s tenor masters like Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp. Now these CDs showcase him in two more bands. Tri-Factor is a regularly constituted co-op trio, filled out by baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett and violinist Billy Bang. The other combo disc is more of bittersweet affair. A reunion between El’Zabar and a former duo partner, extensively recorded tenor saxophonist David Murray, it’s also the final recording session for bassist Fred Hopkins, who died at 51 of heart and liver disease a few months after the session.

Along with Hamid Drake, El’Zabar is part of the Chicago percussion tradition that encompasses mastery of many more drums than the standard trap kit. As a matter of fact, his most impressive rhythmic thrust comes on African hand drum or kalimba. Connect the Africanisms suggested by those instruments and his vocals to a stringed instrument and a horn and you get the basic thrust of both these discs.

Best-known for his tenure in the Wold Saxophone Quartet, which also includes Murray, Bluiett’s experience encompasses St. Louis’ Black Artists Group (BAG), R&B gigs and three years with bassist Charles Mingus. Most distinctive of modern violinists Harlem-raised Bang was a founding member of another collective, The String Trio Of New York. Since the 1980s he has played in variety of contexts from modern classical, to straightahead, to outside Energy music with the likes of tenor man Frank Lowe and bassist William Parker.

IF YOU BELIVE… gets it strength from the tension that must be resolved among Bang’s off-centre formalism, Bluiett’s blues roots and El’Zabar, whose rhythms may suggest African rain forests, but whose singing and lyrics reference sanctified gospel. This push-and-pull can most easily be heard on the first and final tracks. A churchy, hand clapper, the title track works up from an echoing vocal refrain courtesy of the percussionist and roadhouse honks from Bluiett’s axe. Bang is smack dab in the middle, ornamenting sax lines with string sweeps or scratching out an approximation of one-string African fiddles Elsewhere, “Urban Bush People”, offers an El’Zabar vocalized chant that is half work song and half-enraged Gil Scott-Heron. Driven by the a repetitive sax riff and hand percussion, with everyone humming the soulful melody, the percussionist sings about “living in the streets of concrete” where “if we don’t start screaming all of our children will be gone”.

Cast in the form of moderato lullabies, numbers, such as “Baby K For Kasan” and “San San For Kasan” spread a warm blanket of kalimba notes over the melodies, with digit power giving the thumb piano the sound and texture of a marimba. Here the overlay of baritone lines and fiddle ornamentation helps to add warm and fuzzies to the tune.

Not that the three have lost their edge however. Bluiett’s “Wide Open Country Style” owes a lot more to Art Blakey than bluesman Blind Blake and is merely one step removed from hard bop. Additionally, the saxman’s ability to create freakish high notes in altissimo range followed by mining shaft deep swoops call to mind early R&B honkers who elaborated on “The Hucklebuck”.

Finally there’s “It Went Somewhere Else”, a free jazz blow out, reminiscent of 1960s Energy Music, with El’Zabar feeding press rolls and bass accents to the others from his kit; Bang snaking up and down the strings; and Bluiett, reverting to his BAG days, speedily screeching in both registers.

Partnering with men whose experience ranged from the formal -- Hopkins’ membership in Air, Murray’s Octets and big bands -- to the free -- the bassist’s duo with drummer Steve McCall, Murray’s duos with El’Zabar or pianist Dave Burrell -- the percussionist on LOVE .. appeared to be ready for anything. Armed with a set of his original tunes, some of which had been recorded in duo with Murray or by the EHE, the idea seems to be to throw everything up in the air and see what developed.

For a start, though, listeners shouldn’t hear this session as some sort of Hopkins memorial disc. Busy as only a prodigal (musical) son can be in his hometown, the bassist certainly didn’t figure this would be his final session. His solid bass line can be heard throughout, but he’s not really featured. In fact, there are times he lays out completely or can’t be heard over the clamor of the more powerful axes.

With the percussionist more often behind the kit than not, El’Zabar plays a series of shuffles, flams and paradiddles to back up Murray’s swaggering tenor saxophone forays and mournful bass clarinet. Although only one number definitely references Duke Ellington, with “Take The A Train” quotes, the saxist appears to be in a ducal mode. On that tune he spears enough high notes to have made Ellington’s coloratura trumpet specialist Cat Anderson jealous and elsewhere his throbbing inflections recall Paul Gonsalves, whose tenor tonalities with the Duke were as likely to suggest R&B and jump bands as Coleman Hawkins or Chu Berry. On “Nia”, an EHE favorite, he comes up with enough overblown screeches, trills and honks show how much New Thing tenorists took from Gonsalves’ sound as well as from the more expected Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane influences. On other tunes, Murray’s reed-biting saxophone forays and El’Zabar’s thumb piano lines produce enough reverberations from two acoustic instruments to make proponents of electronica seem foolish in their reliance on wires and dials.

When he’s not biting off arpeggios on his horn(s), Murray also vocalizes along with El’Zabar, most notably on his own “Song For The New South Africa”. The two do well as rhythm singers, but neither Luther Vandross nor Usher should lose any sleep over their crooning. Lyrics awash with the sentiments of peace and love figure strongly in the final tune, which is also the title of Murray-El’Zabar duo disc. Although he uses a lot of slap tonguing and key pops, Murray’s bass clarinet solos also have a spiritual quality here, amplified by the percussionists unbroken hand drumming and call-and-response vocals.

With a Pentecostal preacher’s vocal delivery and the large licorice stick providing the chorus, the power of the piece really revolves around Hopkins’ wide-sweeping bass work. Probably his most assured playing on the CD, it’s good to know that the bassman went out on a strong note the last time he entered the recording studio.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: If: 1. If You Believe 2. The Sequence of our Hearts 3. Dark Silhouette 4. Without Blame 5. Baby K For Kasan 6. Wide Open Country Style 7. San San For Kasan 8. It Went Somewhere Else Now 9. Internal Offerings 10. Urban Bush People

Personnel: If: Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone, bamboo flute); Billy Bang (violin); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, hand drums, kalimba, bellaphon, vocals)

Track Listing: Love: 1. Love Outside of Dreams 2. Song for a New South Africa 3. Song of Myself 4. Nia 5. Meditation for the Celestial Warriors 6. The Ebulllient Duke 7. Fred 8. One Wold Family

Personnel: Love: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Fred Hopkins (bass); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, African drums, thumb piano)

October 28, 2002

KAHIL EL'ZABAR/BILLY BANG

Spirits Entering
Delmark 533

Representing the New York and Chicago tradition of African American improvised music, violinist Billy Bang and multi-percussionist Kahil El'Zabar have been playing in tandem on and off for the past 25 years.

Both obviously enjoy working together because each sees himself as part of a continuing musical lineage. Alabama-born, Manhattan-raised Bang, 53, developed his lyrical, rhythmic and dramatic conception not only by internalizing the innovations of free violinists Leroy Jenkins and Ornette Coleman, but also by accepting the entire hot fiddle lineage typified by Eddie South and especially the iconoclastic joker, Stuff Smith.

Six years younger than Bang, born and raised in the Windy City, El'Zabar is yet another active member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Still, Chicago's musical economics and AACM contacts has meant his workmates have varied from veterans such as bassist Malachi Favors and saxophonists Fred Anderson to youthful street rhythm specialists. Easily able to produce a flowing, neo-bop approach with his trap set, he's also a specialist in exotic rhythms and ethnic percussion following study with African percussion gurus in Ghana a few years ago.

Serious as they are, the percussionist and violinist are also intrinsically theatrical enough to carry out solo showcases as well as dyad dates like these. "Old Time Religion" here offers a clear glimpse of their methods.

The venerable, ante-bellum hymn is transformed by an improvisation that reduces it to its simplest components, while subtly reshaping it. Vocalized by El'Zabar in a slurred mutter that suggests early slave songs, the steady rhythm he pounds out on conga drum alludes to Acid House as much as the Ashanti. Bang, meanwhile, slides out variations on the theme, first arco, then plucked from the strings of his highly distinctive, amplified, ivory-colored fiddle.

When he really gets excited, as on the title tune, the violinist starts repeating the motif, worrying it along with staccato pulls then elongating it with long legato lines. Getting into the top of his instrument's range, he forges a call-and-response section that makes it appear he's trading fours with himself. All the while, the percussionist is being the perfect accompanist, moving the beat along on toms, snare, bass drum and cymbals.

"Song of Myself" on the other hand, comes across as a bare bones violin concerto with drum accents. However further tracks give El'Zabar his head -- and hands -- and allow him to improvise on the African mbiri, thumb piano and Brazilian birimbau.

Not that everything here is copacetic. Bang and El'Zabar have played together in the percussionist's Ritual Trio or in larger groups, so sometimes they appear to leave too many unfilled spaces. "Love Outside of Dreams", for instance, which initially comes across the way committed beboppers would treat a standard tune, as the drummer time keeps, soon dwindles into schmaltzy violin lines that are only partially redeemed by Bang's coda of lively pizzicato plucks.

Having another partner or two on board would have probably prevented the two from trying absolutely everything on this CD, including some conceptions that obviously don't work. Still one can't complain about what's not there. As an accomplished duo disc, this CD certainly merits your attention.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Spirits Entering 2. 2 Was Now 3. Sweet Irene 4. Love Outside of Dreams 5. The Dream Merchant 6. Song of Myself 7. The Ituri Fantasy 8. Old Time Religion 9. Golden Sea

Personnel: Billy Bang (violin); Kahil El'Zabar (drums, percussion, birimbau, thumb piano)

October 15, 2001

KAHIL EL'ZABAR

Africa N'da Blues
Delmark DE-519

Chicago percussionist Kahil El'Zabar is one younger musician who makes it a point to interact with the jazz pioneers of the 1960s and 1970s. A longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, he has built the Ritual Trio around the talents of veteran AACMers Brown and Favors, who is also a member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago. More to the point the percussionist has played and recorded with other sound pioneers from that time including saxophonists Fred Anderson, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Joseph Jarman, Archie Shepp and now Pharoah Sanders.

The results, especially on this CD, are particularly memorable because El'Zabar and his men are able to match the older musicians' populist as well as the exploratory vocabularies. Categorized as a unreconstructed firebreather following his stint with John Coltrane's most advanced groups Sanders is much more than that as he proceeds to demonstrate here. After all, almost the entire so-called acid jazz movement was built on his recordings with vocalist Leon Thomas such as "The Creator Has A Master Plan".

No one really sings on this disc, though Sandoval's spoken words in both English and Spanish on "Africanos/Latinos" pinpoints the many tributaries to the jazz river, and El'Zabar's chanting on "Pharoah's Song" could excite progressive DJs.

Instead, on tracks like the title tune, "Ka-Real" and, of course, "Pharoah's Song" Sanders breathes out flowing legato tones that appears to refer as much to Ben Webster-like boudoir sax playing as the New Thing. Unleashing a percussion offensive on that last tune seems to satisfy El'Zabar's most exotic impulses, since he sticks to the trap set the rest of the time. Meanwhile Favors does his work as unobtrusively possible.

If the session does have a drawback it's in the under-utilization of Brown's distinctive reed playing. Except for a soprano sax interlude on "Pharoah's Song" and a tenor chase with Sanders on "Miles' Mode", he merely turns out impeccable modal-style accompaniment throughout on the piano, his third instrument. Nonetheless, Brown's transformation of hoary "Autumn Leaves" into a pulsating rhythmic piano workout not only highlight his multi-talents, but could have guaranteed him a gig in a Southside Chicago bar anytime over the past half-century.

Meetings of musicians from different generations don't always work. But the sympathetic sounds from all concerned on AFRICA N'DA BLUES shows that harmony can sometimes be attained.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Ka-Real (Take 2) 2. Africanos/Latinos* 3. Miles' Mode 4. Autumn Leaves 5. Africa N'da Blues 6. Pharoah's Song 7. Ka-Real (Take 1)

Personnel: Pharoah Sanders (tenor saxophone); Ari Brown (soprano and tenor saxophones, piano); Malachi Favors (bass); Kahil El'Zabar (drums, percussion); Susana Sandoval (spoken word) *

September 20, 2000