eMusic Review 0
When, as young men in the 1960s, bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Rashied Ali began moving to the left of mainstream (Grimes with pianist Cecil Taylor and Ali, more visibly, as Elvin Jones' replacement in John Coltrane's group), they were charting part of the new language of jazz. Grimes, who could swing conventionally with the very best of the era, created what amounted to a school of bass playing: an enormous sound adumbrated by the use of double stops, easy shifting between pizzicato and arco, and the deliberate use of indeterminate pitch. Ali, the less in demand session player, was one of the first exponents of non-horizontal rhythmic propulsion.
In a Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction event, Grimes stopped playing bass in the late 1960s, dropped entirely out of sight, and was thought to have died. In 2004, he miraculously reappeared, returned to the bass (and added the violin), and picked up exactly where he'd left off. Ali, who had continued as a bandleader during the intervening years, may be less radical — more time-driven — than he once was, but he retains the ability to instantly conjure up all the components of the 60s avant-garde. Ultimately, what Spirits Aloft presents… read more »
