Skip to content
CapRadio

CapRadio

signal status listen live donate
listen live donate signal status
listen live donate signal status
  • News
    • topics
    • State Government
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • Race and Equity
    • Business
    • Arts and Lifestyle
    • Food and Sustainability
    • PolitiFact California
  • Music
    • genres
    • Classical
    • Jazz
    • Eclectic
    • Daily Playlist
  • Programs + Podcasts
    • news
    • Morning Edition
    • All Things Considered
    • Marketplace
    • Insight With Vicki Gonzalez
    • music
    • Acid Jazz
    • At the Opera
    • Classical Music
    • Connections
    • Excellence in Jazz
    • Hey, Listen!
    • K-ZAP on CapRadio
    • Mick Martin's Blues Party
    • Programs A-Z
    • Podcast Directory
  • Schedules
    • News
    • Music
    • ClassicalStream
    • JazzStream
    • Weekly Schedule
    • Daily Playlist
  • Community
    • Events Calendar
    • CapRadio Garden
    • CapRadio Reads
    • Ticket Giveaways
  • Support
    • Evergreen Gift
    • One-Time Gift
    • Corporate Support
    • Vehicle Donation
    • Stock Gift
    • Legacy Gift
    • Endowment Gift
    • Benefits
    • Member FAQ
    • e‑Newsletter
    • Drawing Winners
    • Thank You Gifts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Close Menu

Speak No Evil Jazz blog

Capital Public Radio's discussion of an art form born in America and celebrated worldwide.

subscribe

 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 
 We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter 

The Lost Recordings Of Hasaan Ibn Ali Reveal A Legend Just Getting Started

By Tom Moon | NPR
Monday, April 26, 2021

Listen
/
Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or Flash plugin.

Hasaan Ibn Ali.

Larry Fink / Courtesy of Omnivore Recordings

For decades, most of what jazz scholars have known about the late, Philadelphia-based pianist and composer Hasaan Ibn Ali came from a single 1965 album – The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan.

That recording didn't exactly establish the idiosyncratic musician as part of jazz's new vanguard, but it did gather enough attention to prompt Atlantic Records to try a follow up – and that second recording, made in the late summer of 1965, has been the stuff of rumor ever since. Long thought to be lost, this album, entitled Metaphysics, was discovered in 2017 and has just, finally, been released.

When Hasaan Ibn Ali made his debut on Atlantic Records, he was 33 years old and living with his parents in Philadelphia. He rarely performed in public, more of a "phantom" than a legend, but within the community of musicians on the East Coast there was a steady hum of grapevine talk about the socially awkward pianist from Philly who could create Thelonious Monk-style whiplash one minute, and sprint up and down the keyboard like Art Tatum the next.

In Philadelphia, Ali was known for showing up at jam sessions, sitting down on the piano bench next to whoever was playing, and gradually taking over. Young musicians respected him, and feared him too: Saxophone legend Archie Shepp, who learned to play at those sessions, recalls Ali as an "imposing figure," saying that when the pianist started to play, he and other younger musicians would flee the bandstand to listen to his intense, questioning music.

Only one horn player could keep up with Ali – saxophonist Odean Pope, who made his recording debut on Metaphysics at age 26. Pope played and studied with Ali for years; he recalls visiting the pianist's house with his friend John Coltrane, absorbing ideas about jazz harmony that were galaxies away from typical bebop. The Metaphysics track "Atlantic Ones" shows that connection: Not only does it bear some similarity to the harmonic motion of Coltrane's iconic "Giant Steps," but it shows Ali and Pope engaged in an animated, rapidly evolving musical conversation.

For the second album, Ali wrote material for a quartet featuring Pope, and convinced Atlantic he needed several rehearsals ahead of the session – an unusual request at a time when many jazz records were made in a day, with no preparation. Despite an imperfectly tuned piano, the recording sessions were considered a success.

But weeks later, Ali was arrested for narcotics possession. That prompted label executives to shelve the project, sending Ali on a downward spiral: Within a few years, he stopped playing in public, and died in a convalescent home in 1981. By then, the Metaphysics master tapes had been lost in a vault fire, along with legendary recordings by Aretha Franklin, Ornette Coleman and other Atlantic artists. Assorted efforts by jazz historians to locate any recordings under Ali's name were fruitless – until 2017, when a monoaural "safety" backup containing most of the music of Metaphysics was found.

The release of Metaphysics roughly doubles Hasaan Ibn Ali's known recorded output. It won't reorder anyone's jazz cosmology, but offers insight about his music that confirms the recollections of many who heard and played with him. Brilliant and sometimes sloppy, it's loaded with musical provocations in the form of diabolical solo leaps and jagged, asymmetrical compositional ideas he likely would have developed further on future projects. Ali might have been hailed/tagged as "legendary" on his very first record, but as this vault discovery shows, he was really just getting started.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

View this story on npr.org

Sign up for ReCap and never miss the top stories

Delivered to your inbox every Friday.

 

Check out a sample ReCap newsletter.

Thanks for subscribing!

Thank you for signing up for the ReCap newsletter! We'll send you an email each Friday with the top stories from CapRadio.

Browse all newsletters

Most Viewed

Downtown Sacramento shooting: What we know and latest updates

A Sacramento County nonprofit is offering to pay $3,000 worth of bills if you test positive for COVID-19 at their clinic

Some living in 209 area code will need to switch to 350

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla will appear on California’s June primary ballot twice. Here’s why.

Top California Democrats in a stalemate over gas rebates

We Get Support From:
Become a Supporter

Back to Top

  • CapRadio

    7055 Folsom Boulevard
    Sacramento, CA 95826-2625

    • (916) 278-8900
    • Toll-free (877) 480-5900
    • Email Us
    • Submit a News Tip
  • Contact Us

  • About Us

    • Contact Us / Feedback
    • Coverage
    • Directions
    • Careers & Internships
    • Mission / Vision / Core Values
    • Press
    • Staff Directory
    • Board of Directors
  • Listening Options

    • Mobile App
    • On Air Schedules
    • Smart Speakers
    • Playlist
    • Podcasts
    • RSS
  • Connect With Us

    •  Facebook
    •  Twitter
    •  Instagram
    •  YouTube
  • Donate

  • Listen

  • Newsletters

CapRadio stations are licensed to California State University, Sacramento. © 2022, Capital Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Website Feedback FCC Public Files: KXJZ KKTO KUOP KQNC KXPR KXSR KXJS. For assistance accessing our public files, please call 916-278-8900 or email us.