Rashied Ali
Rashied Ali ( actually Robert Patterson, born July 1, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † August 12 2009 in New York City ) was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer.
Life and work
As a drummer Ali was known especially for his work with John Coltrane. He was originally supposed to play on the album Ascension next to Elvin Jones, was then for the first time alongside Jones on Meditations (recorded in November 1965 ) to hear and this sparked off at the last sessions before Coltrane's death in 1967. Ali first put a free pulsating game under the music of Coltrane Quartet. In February 1967, the duo album Interstellar Space was born. Ali is further occurred after the untimely death of Coltrane with Alice Coltrane. Later, he also has played with Sonny Rollins, Pharoah Sanders, Alan Shorter, James Blood Ulmer, Ellen Christi, William Parker and Aki Takase. With Evan Parker, he played on the Total Music Meeting.
With the Japanese improvisation musician Keiji Haino and the fusion musician Bill Laswell he formed the group Purple Trap, which released its double CD Decided ... Already the Motionless Heart of Tranquility, Tangling the Prayer Called "I" on John Zorn's Tzadik label. In 2003 he founded his Rashied Ali Quintet, whose playing is documented on three albums.
His younger brother Muhammad Ali is also active as a drummer.