Modern Acoustic Jazz In The Philadelphia Tradition.

8 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Traditional Jazz Combo, JAZZ: Uncanny Jazz

Respectfully Yours Songs


Details:
The Incredibly True Story of Ali Abdul Majeed

Ali was born in Cleveland, Ohio and took up the guitar as a youngster.His talent for the instrumentate was immediately obvious and by the time he was a teenager he was a gigging member of the illustrious "Caldonia Road Show". The Caldonia Road Show was a long-familiar travelling event which featured, singers, dancers, musicians and the occasional comedian. Perhaps the most illustrious member of that show still with us today
is the vocalist Jimmy Scott.

Jimmy Scott and Ali were both young musical aspirants on the Cleveland jazz and r&b scene of the early 50's. In fact, when Jimmy Scott joined the Lionel Hampton Orchestra for a few tours Ali came along as the guitarist
for a spell.

The next major affiliation that Ali had was as a very early participant in what would go on to become Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. At this time Blakey's outfit was a 17 piece big band but as the age of the big band was nearly over he soon downsized the band and the rest is history.

From this point in the late 50's Ali had designs on greener pastures and by the early 60's he had set up residence in NYC and was affiliated with the burgeoning avant-garde jazz scene which was emerging in Manhattan. Perhaps the most significant compatriot that Ali found during that period was the late Albert Ayler. Ali also played with Frank Wright at that time and was involved with expanding the palette of the jazz guitar into the realm
of Free Jazz just as Sonny Sharrock was doing around the same time with Byard Lancaster.

Finally, in the late 60's Ali left Manhattan and moved to Philadelphia mirroring the trajectory of Sun Ra who relocated there at the same time.

I met Ali at the laundromat in our neighborhood in West Philadelphia, an area well known for producing jazz artists like McCoy Tyner. In any event we began chatting and our mutual interests in art, literature and "botany" gave way to a fast friendship.

I ended up making a documentary about Ali called Silence Is A Sound while I was in filmmaking school at Temple University. After I realized that despite a lifetime of music making Ali had never been recorded I set about raising the money needed to make an album that would stand as the sole example of the inventive and soulful artist.

We made this album the old-fashioned way, totally live without a singleoverdub. I hope that this record captures a little bit of his elegant, wistful magic of the fretboard.

Ali-Abdul Majeed- Electric Guitar
Ben Schachter- Soprano, Alto and Tenor Saxes
Tyrone Brown- Acoustic Bass
Adam Guth- Drums
Engineer- Aaron Levinson
Producer- Aaron Levinson