Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Alb

Odean Pope Art Davis Hasaan Ibn Ali

Hasaan's 1965 Atlantic recordings, restored from long-lost acetate copies of the sessions. "He had ideas as deep as the sea. I mean, I've never heard anyone play like that, even today." - Odean Pope - Tenor Saxophonist "Pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali, whom saxophonist Odean Pope calls "the most advanced player ever to develop [in Philadelphia]," had practiced extensively with John Coltrane in the early 1950s and is credited by Pope and others as the influence behind Coltrane's so-called "sheets of sound" as well as the harmonic approach that underlay Coltrane's breathy "Giant Steps," and also, along with Earl Bostic, as one of the two models behind Coltrane's rigorous work ethic. Yet he was rarely used, even by musicians who respected his playing and knowledge, so he had little chance of building an audience. When he sat down at the piano at the Woodbine, an after-hours club in Philadelphia, all the horn players left the place because they couldn't play with him, so foreign were his harmonic concepts to them." (from the liner notes) In 1964, drummer/composer Max Roach convinced Atlantic Records to record him with producer Nusuhi Ertegun at the helm. Recording took place in December 1964 and the resulting album, The Max Roach Trio Featuring The Legendary Hasaan, was released three months later. Atlantic invited Ali to record again in August and September 1965, but before the mixing sessions could turn the recorded material into a releasable album, Ali had been jailed for drug possession. Atlantic put the album on hold. Thirteen years later, the tape went up in flames in an Atlantic Records warehouse in Long Branch, New Jersey. For years, rumors circulated that a copy of the sessions existed, but attempts to track it down never yielded a source.... until now. Restored and mastered by Grammy® Award-winning engineer Michael Graves from a tape copy of long-lost reference acetates of the sessions, and with notes from producer Alan Sukoenig and writer/pianist/teacher Lewis Porter, Omnivore Recordings is proud to present this long-lost piece of jazz history. Co-produced by Alan Sukoenig and Grammy® Award nominated producer Patrick Milligan and Grammy® Award nominated producer Cheryl Pawelski, the project features the seven surviving tracks from the album sessions as well as three surviving alternate takes. The sleeve features photographs from December 1964 by noted photographer Larry Fink, who calls Ali "the Prokofiev of jazz." The personnel for the August 23-September 7, 1965 sessions, held at Atlantic Studios in New York City, included Hasaan Ibn Ali, piano; Odean Pope, tenor saxophone; Art Davis, bass; and Kalil Madi, drums, and all are featured in the liner notes.

Price: $25.98