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The task of following
Elvin Jones as drummer with
John Coltrane must have been one of the most daunting situations ever entered into by a jazz musician. In the mid-'60s, most jazz listeners would have assumed that Jones was the only drummer alive who possessed the requisite imagination, intensity, and powerful sense of swing necessary to drive
Coltrane's passions. As it turned out, even Jones had limitations, and since
Coltrane was all about transcending limitations, it seems proper that he would complement Jones' polymetric intractability with the addition of
Rashied Ali's skittish, asymmetrical flexibility. The two drummers shared the bandstand briefly, before Jones, reportedly disgusted, left the band. It's not difficult to understand why the pairing proved ill-fated. Jones was an innovator, but he was bound to tradition -- specifically, the tradition of ground-beat swing. He was the last stage in the evolution of the drummer-as-timekeeper; he reiterated swing's primal importance, even as he extended the drummer's role in terms of interaction with the ensemble. For his part,
Ali almost completely abandoned a steady pulse, adopting instead a rhythmically irregular, textural, hyperactive approach that propelled the music in a manner at odds with Jones' more literal style. The addition of
Ali and the departure of Jones marked
Coltrane's last and most extreme step away from the jazz tradition. The removal of a steady beat, and the multitude of implied meters set by
Ali and bassist
Jimmy Garrison freed
Coltrane to an unprecedented extent. Indeed, it was with the addition of
Ali to his group that
Coltrane's free jazz period truly began.
Ali studied at Philadelphia's Granoff School of Music. He gained early experience with local jazz and R&B bands around Philadelphia. In 1963, he toured Japan with
Sonny Rollins before moving to New York, where he became involved in the free jazz scene there. Associations with
Pharoah Sanders,
Albert Ayler,
Bill Dixon, and
Sunny Murray preceded his tenure with
Coltrane, which began in 1965 and lasted until the latter's death in 1967. For a time,
Ali continued playing with pianist
Alice Coltrane before going off on his own as a bandleader and musical organizer. In 1972, he helped coordinate the New York Musicians Festival. The next year, he formed his own record label, Survival, and opened his own performance venue, Ali's Alley, a New York City loft space that presented free jazz performances until the summer of 1979. In the '80s and '90s, his presence on the scene was sporadic; he performed on occasion with saxophonist
Makanda Ken McIntyre, and recorded with multi-instrumentalist Zusaan Kali Fasteau and tenor saxophonist
David Murray. In 1987 he recorded as a member of the group Phalanx, with guitarist
James "Blood" Ulmer, tenor saxophonist
George Adams, and bassist
Sirone. In 1991, he made the critically acclaimed album Touchin' on Trane with bassist
William Parker and tenor saxophonist
Charles Gayle. The '90s found
Ali at the helm of the band Prima Materia (initially co-led with
Parker), an ensemble dedicated to interpreting the late works of
Coltrane and
Albert Ayler. ~ Chris Kelsey