Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensembl — Let The Spirit Out, Live At "mu" London
Kahil El'Zabar is a Chicagoan veteran jazz percussionist and composer whose works with the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble date back to the early 80's. The performers in the ensemble have changed numerous times since then, though players like Corey Wilkes (Trumpet) and Alex Harding (baritone sax) have been involved for many years.
The combination of chords from a thumb piano (a kalimba) with muted trumpet and upright bass establishes an afro-jazz feeling. Opener "From Your Heart" is a 12-minute song that takes many minutes to truly begin; there is a patient, sensitive and intimate feeling about the music. A shaker establishes a slow, deliberate tempo, and an emotional saxophone solo begins to wind around the chords which ring out once every couple of bars. Earnest lyrics begin about halfway through, at 6 or 7 minutes, with the vocalist (El'Zabar himself) asking "What's in your heart? What do you feel?".
The rest of the recording delves into territory more comfortably close to classic jazz, with compositions by Wayne Shorter, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington filling out the middle third of the album. There is influence from both the more organized style of 'hard bop' and the lengthy freeform landscapes typified by albums like Bitches Brew.
El'Zabar's drumming does not adhere to the steady 16th note hats of hard bop, nor could it quite be said to be a fusion with rock. The polyrhythmic oddness with which he engages is the hardest to place aspect of the music, best exemplified by his bizarre solo in Shorter's "Footprints". It has elements of Fela Kuti's thunderous afrobeat rhythms, but is generally harder to parse, with oddly syncopated accents. Even when covering other people's music, he often completely shifts the original rhythmic sensibilities of the piece. Ironically, the album's straightest hardbop iteration is El'Zabar's own composition, "Trane In Mind", with Alex Harding playing the role of "Trane", and a head melody that truly could be written by Coltrane.
The stripped-down, haunting version of Gershwin's "Summertime" features no percussion except kalimba chords and a shaker (much like the first piece), allowing additional space for Alex Harding to absolutely murder a melancholic solo. Harding may have stolen the show on this recording as a whole, with his growling, raspy tunefulness, contributing more melodic content than the rest of the musicians, generally taking the lead role. The intimate effect of El'Zabar's kalimba is all the more powerful as it signifies the lack of his drumset, giving the album as a whole a wide dynamic contrast.
The liner notes call the venue that housed this performance an 'audiophile setting', and indeed this is a masterfully recorded show. The instruments are feel close, resonant and perfectly clear, with every reedy, rattling vibration of Harding's sax coming through, the crystalline plink of the kalimba sounding right next to the ear. The live energy does the music a service, with El'Zabar's spirited yells of "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" following solos by Wilkes and Harding. He can be heard scatting and whooping in the background in numerous places. The emotional arc of the show, starting soft and hushed and moving into more rhythmic directions, is well considered and flawless, as perfected as the best studio albums, and yet enacted in real time. The years of experience these musicians have is evident, and jazz such as this is perhaps best heard live.
One may not think there would be essential classic jazz recordings coming out in 2025; it turns out there are. Make sure to check this one out.