Kahil El'Zabar

Kahil El'Zabar ( born November 11, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois as Clifton Blackburn ) is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist and composer of the Creative Jazz. He belongs to the AACM and founded the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.

Life and work

In the 1970s, Kahil El'Zabar was one of the leading musicians in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM ), which he chaired in 1975. During this period he founded the formations Ritual Trio and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. In the 1980s he worked among others with Wadada Leo Smith. Since then he has recorded a number of albums under his own name with musicians like Billy Bang, Malachi Favors, Lester and Joseph Bowie, Fareed Haque, Hamiet Bluiett, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. He also worked as a sideman in the 1990s on albums by David Murray, as The Trip and Jug -A -Lug 1994 and on the album Return Of the Lost Tribe of the formation Bright Moments with Joseph Jarman.

Kahil El'Zabar has in his career also collaborated with musicians such as Kurt Elling, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Cannonball Adderley and Paul Simon.

El'Zabar relates similar Famoudou Don Moye directly to African rhythms, where he was taught by Atu Harold Murray. Among the many instruments he used, such as the berimbau, gongs, kettle drums and various flutes, including an African lamellophones.

Auswahldiskographie

With the Ritual Trio

With the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble

• Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Three Gentlemen From Chicago ( Moers Music, ca 1980) with Edward Wilkerson, "Light" Henry Huff
• Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: The Continuum ( Delmark, 1997) with Joseph Bowie