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Rashied Ali and Sonny Fortune To Edgefest 2004The duo of drummer Rashied Ali and altoist Sonny Fortune are the headliners for the seventh annual Edgefest that takes place October 14-16 at the Kerrytown Concert House, the Firefly, and Hollanders (former Workbench) in Ann Arbor. Other well Rashied Ali is generally acknowledged as one of the crucial players in the latter phases of John Coltrane’s ever-changing career. He joined Coltrane in 1965, first as a second drummer to Elvin Jones, but took over completely upon Jones’ departure in January 1966. He recorded six LPs with Coltrane, the most distinctive their duo Interstellar Space in the last year of Coltrane’s life (1967). In the 1970s Ali was very active in efforts by musicians to become economically self-sufficient, and for several years he ran a loft club/restaurant called Ali’s Alley in NYC. He has led his own groups and worked as a sideman with Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Archie Sheipp, Jaco Pastorius, and Sonny Fortune. His own group By Any Means included Charles Gayle and William Parker. He also celebrated the 31st Anniversary of the October Revolution in Jazz in a recording which included Joe McPhee and Myra Melford (in 1995), who also play Edgefest this year. Sonny Fortune is like Ali from Philadelphia, but a few years his junior. He moved to New York in 1967 to replace Frank Foster in Elvin Jones’ group, with whom he played and recorded off and on through the nineties. Fortune has most notably recorded with Miles Davis (1974–75) and Charles Mingus (1977). He has made many recordings with his own groups for the last forty years, mainly on the alto, but he also plays the soprano and flute. As usual, Edgefest features a varied fare of the best all forms of avant garde/creative music drawing on bands from all over the world. I N - T H I S - I S S U E : |
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known names this year are tenorist Joe McPhee, pianist Myra Melford, and ex-area players Gerald Cleaver (drums) and Craig Taborn (piano).