Kahil El'Zabar with Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors at Saalfelden 1987

Regular readers of this blog may recall that we posted two albums by Kahil El'Zabar back in August, both of them released on the Sound Aspects label. They may also recall that due to an intervention by the label proprietor, the links to the files of these recordings disappeared.

Kahil El'Zabar made at least one more album for Sound Aspects called "Sacred Love" which featured Malachi Favors (who was also on the album with Billy Bang) and Lester Bowie. I do have the album, but since we're under restrictions, I'm not going to post it. The pictures appended to this post are from the back sleeve of the album, though.

Instead I propose to post something even better, a live recording from the Saalfelden jazz festival in 1987 with the same line-up. Here you'll get 20 minutes of extra music as compared to the album.

Those familiar with the other recordings will know the basic structure by now. El'Zabar starts out on earth drum, switches later to a regular drum set and finally settles in on the thumb piano. Malachi Favors stays close to El'Zabar, using the bass as a second rhythmic-percussive instrument, leaving Lester Bowie free to extrapolate on the top. The African rootedness of this set is strongly present throughout.

Two-thirds of the trio are no longer with us, but El'Zabar is still active, releasing records on the Chicago-based Delmark label. He's a long-time member of Chicago's AACM and was voted Chicagoan of the year in 2004 by the Chicago Tribune, also thereby crediting his wider work as an educator and community leader.

Basic info:

KAHIL EL'ZABAR perc,voc
LESTER BOWIE tp
MALACHI FAVORS MAGHOSTUT b,perc

Saalfelden Jazz Festival, Saalfelden, Austria
Aug 28, 1987

01 part one 45:37
02 part two 14:57
03 encore 07:37

Three pieces somewhat artificially separated, but in reality one contiguous piece with an encore at the end.

Most likely recorded from radio. There is a noticeable hiss in the quieter passages.

Another Dime, no longer on the tracker, so I've no idea who recorded/upped this one, but in any case, a tip of the hat for making this available.

ADDENDUM: It has been brought to my notice that there is another posting of this set here: http://ubu-space.blogspot.com/2008/06/kahil-elzabar-lester-bowie-malachi.html. These were posted as flacs. To save server space, I'll delete the flacs from this post, but keep the mp3 file. Those wanting the flacs are advised to seek out the other posting.

Mp3 file here:

http://tinyurl.com/3ha3k4

Kahil El' Zabar Ritual Trio: Another Kind Of Groove

Kahil El' Zabar Ritual Trio: Another Kind Of Groove
Sound Aspects CD016

Recorded May 26th 1986 in Germany.

Billy Bang (violin, bells)
Malachi Favors (bass, percussion)
Kahil El'Zabar (drums, earth drum, bass bamboo flute, berimbau, sanza, ankle bells)

Here's a share from drhotte that he (?) posted in the comments of my last El' Zabar posting. I wouldn't want you to miss this one. No essay this time; but enjoy the music.

Kahil El'Zabar with David Murray Golden Sea

Kahil El'Zabar with David Murray Golden Sea

Sound Aspects Records 027
Recorded January 28,1989 in Chicago

Kahil El'Zabar (traps, earth d, ashiko d, mbira, sanza, ankle bells, vc)
David Murray (ts, bcl)

1. Golden Sea (Kahil El'Zabar) 10:50
2. Dreams (Kahil El'Zabar) 5:55
3. Sunrise Serenade (Kahil El'Zabar) 7:55
4. Sweet Meat (Kahil El'Zabar) 7:40
5. All Blues (Miles Davis) 10:10
6. Song For A New South Africa (David Murray) 4:45

Kahil El'Zabar and David Murray seem to bring out something special in each other. They've been consistent collaborators: El'zabar has been in a couple of Murray's quartets (including the excellent, but hard to find, People's Choice) and a couple of Octets; while Murray's been on four duo albums under El'zabar's name. All the duo recordings are worth owning, but this (for me) is the strongest. It's also sadly the hardest to get hold of; and I'm not sure it even got a CD release.

El'Zabar and Murray share an interest in Afro-centric music and pan-African culture, and this is apparent in much of the music here. The very title of Murray's 'Song For A New South Africa' is an index of this. However, the orientation is surprisingly best achieved on their interpretation of Miles Davis' 'All Blues'. Murray is at his plaintive best on Bass Clarinet, while El'Zabar plays the Mbira or Sanza (which the LP lists as separate instruments, but which I've always understood them to be two names for the same Shona 'thumb piano' instrument). The track reaches its peak with Murray playing and El'Zabar singing. This is, perhaps, my favorite piece of Murray Bass Clarinet 'ballad' playing. He seems to take a perverse pleasure in playing a bass instrument beyond its usual highest frequencies, and draws upon the textures of gospel playing to create a sound I find deeply affecting. A haunting and beautifully realised cultural and musical fusion. 'Sunrise Serenade' features El'Zabar alone on Mbira/Sanza with ankle bells and a wordless vocal and rhythmic chants. It's one of the best tracks on the LP for me, though regular visitors to this blog may find it a step too far beyond jazz sensibilities.

Each track has a distinctive texture, achieved most often by El'Zabar's use of different percussion instruments (Murray has never made major changes to playing style across his whole career, let alone an LP). 'Dreams' features a hand drum (I'm guessing it's the Ashiko drum) and a more meditative and gentler start for Murray on tenor before his characteristic gospel-rich style kicks in. I'm also speculating when I say this sounds like a total improvisation from Murray; a notion backed up by the fact that none of the pieces credited to El'Zabar have strong melodies (a Murray characteristic). I think the balance (on this track and the whole LP) works very well overall, though, giving a sax and percussion duo album a lot of variety. For Sweet Meat El'Zabar plays conventional jazz traps with lots of cymbal ride and rhythmic work on the tuned drums while Murray's ecstatic tenor runs build in intensity. This is possibly the most conventional duo piece, but executed with panache. 'Song For A New South Africa' features a poly-rhythmic hand drum and ankle bells textual bed, and a fairly straight-forward rendering of the strong melody riff by Murray. They clearly liked this number because the duo repeated the piece on record three years later on A Sanctuary Within, and thirteen years later on Love Outside Of Dreams with very similar, if slightly more complex renderings.

1989 was a classic year for Murray, and his work made available in that twelve moths is remarkably wide. Albums released in that year included a James Brown-tribute funk project (Cold Sweat), a challenging piano-sax duo with Dave Burrell (Daybreak), an attempt at the jazz mainstream through the Columbia-released Ming's Samba, four other jazz quartet albums under different group names and for different labels (I Want To Talk About You, Last Of The Hipmen, Lucky Four, The Fo'tet), and a WSQ collection of soul covers (Rhythm & Blues). This one fits in the eclectic moment comfortably. I hope you enjoy it.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble - Cologne, May 1989

While you're waiting for the Circle concert to appear, here is something to continue the AACM theme that has been unfolding here recently - a beautiful concert lasting just under two hours.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
Stadtgarten, Cologne
8th May, 1989

Edward Wilkerson - as, ts, cl, bcl, perc, p
Joseph Bowie - tb, cga, perc
Kahil El'Zabar - sanza, dr, earth-dr, fl, perc, voc

1. - 14:21
2. - 18:59
3. - 11:26
4. - 24:06

5. - 12:46
6. - 07:15
7. - 18:49
8. - 11:08

I like the way this music pulses in repeated waves, hence the image. Many thanks to boldsouls, the seeder on dime, and source of much sublime music.