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Instruments
of progress >> Kahil El’Zabar and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble celebrate 25 years of truly African-American jazz by SCOTT C
Mirror:
Can you explain the mandate of the AACM and how it’s stood up over
the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble’s 25-year history?
M: Do you
feel like there’s an abundance of black artists who share that
same point of view in this day and age? KEZ: No.
I think it’s a difficult point of view to maintain because the
majority of things in the Western environment promote the individual
instead of the collective, and the opportunities appear to be so scarce
that it creates enormous pressure, and in many ways tears down that
idea. That’s where the individuals that I’ve collaborated
with over the years are quite special. We’ve helped nurture and
re-energize each other against the popular grain, so that we would maintain
our values, goals and ideals. M: Do you
still involve yourself in the workshops that you were doing a couple
years ago? KEZ: Yes. It’s real important to pass things on, to look at your students to see the viability of your ideas. Through the AACM School, where I was both chairman of the organization and director of the school, young musicians like guitarist Keith Henderson, bassist Daryl Jones, Steve Coleman—these were all students of mine, and to see what has happened with their careers and the way they live as individuals, developing their own relationships with artists and passing on the general ideas. When we see these kinds of things it reinforces what we have attempted to do.
Dream team M: How come
Joseph Bowie isn’t with you for the 25th anniversary tour? KEZ: The
group actually started in ’73, but in ’77 we went to Europe
and stayed a year until ’78. The group had arrived there as a quintet,
but by the time we left Europe it was just two saxophones and me, the
drummer. And it stayed that way for pretty much the next 15 years. Joe
joined about 12 years ago and it became a sax, a trombone and a drummer,
so we wanted this 25th anniversary to be a commemoration of what we
were known as predominantly, and we asked Ari Brown to tour in the spirit
of Edward Wilkerson and Henry Huff, who died. M: I was
part of a discussion earlier this week talking about the magnitude of
hip hop culture today and the inevitability of selling out. Is it difficult
to reap the benefits of the so-called American Dream and not sell out
as a black artist? KEZ: It
depends on what the dream is. There’s a multiplicity of cultures
in America. If we’re speaking to the idea of the dominant social
culture, which is European, it is very difficult, but nothing is impossible.
If we deal with the idea of the Native American, which I think is the
primary essence of this land base because these were the people who
made reference to ecology and spirit and respect to community, yes,
it’s possible to develop mobility with some economic sovereignty
and still maintain a commitment to land, family and God. M: I know
you were a professor, but for how many years? KEZ: About
12 years.
KEZ: I’ve
been this doing this Bluiett-Jackson-El’Zabar Trio thing, and the
Ritual Trio with Pharaoh Sanders has been working a lot, Ethnic Heritage
Ensemble, duets with David Murray and Billy Bang, and then working with
my new band Jupa Collective, which is a mixture of house music, hip
hop, so-called jazz, world music and spoken word. M: So basically
you have no time to be teaching right now. KEZ: (laughs) Not exactly!
Jupa trooper M: Who are
you collaborating with in the Jupa Collective? KEZ: It’s
a hip hop group called Primeridian, a poet from Atlanta called Tamber
Madison Shaw, and from Chicago, Susanna Sandoval, Ari Brown, Fareed
Haque, Bobby Irving, and from Poi Dog Pondering, Frank Orrel. There’s
also a visual artist who’s supporting us called Design. M: How did
all of this come about? KEZ: Well,
y’know, I’ve always liked to dance, and I was hangin’
out in the clubs and noticed a real significant division between the
hip hop culture, house and retro kinds of communities. Now dance is
supposed to be for the praise of God, and people have danced throughout
the centuries. I thought, how can I take these environments and find
some people who are flexible enough to see that dance is kind of the
grounding force behind it all, and then tie in some artists from other
disciplines and visual arts, as well as some ol’ heads—the
jazz musicians. We started experimenting, and over the course of two
years we developed a formal relationship, which is how most of my groups
have happened. Last year we went to Bordeaux, France, under my artist-in-residency
project and we worked for three months and came out with a recording.
That’s coming out in about two months. I’ll bring up the demo
so you can hear it. M: What
about live shows? Has anyone ever seen Jupa perform? KEZ: We’re
playing the Munich Jazz Festival April 12 and 13, and Frankfurt in October.
We’re also doing a month residency between August 23 and September
23 in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art. M: You don’t
mess around, man. How old are you now, if you don’t mind me asking? KEZ: I’m
49 years old. M: You’re
still a young man. It seems to me that you do more in one month than
most sharp-minded young people do in one year. Does it ever catch up
with you? I mean, you’re runnin’ ragged! KEZ: Well, sometimes, but what you put out is what I focus on. Just look at all the great artists that just kept putting out parts of themselves—Frank Lloyd Wright, Miles Davis, y’know? That’s where the replenishment comes from, doing the work, the energy of completion and the relationships to people who receive it. You get scared, you get tired and frustrated a lot because that’s part of the building process, but you get it back in the end. : At la Sala
Rossa on Saturday and Sunday, |
For
the last quarter century, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble have made it
their mission to push the boundaries of jazz performance to a level
that pays endless respect to its cultural beginnings, while still moving
forward in unique and innovative leaps and bounds.
Kahil
El’Zabar: The mandate of the AACM is to perform creative music,
and to give opportunity to the composer as well as the conceptualist,
because you’ll find that many of the unique personalities of the
AACM are extraordinary conceptualists, like the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
In the EHE, we were able to create our own voice that was unique to
the template based on the relationship of African music and the music
of Africans in America. Over the years we’ve tried to evolve that
concept so that the music was full in regards to harmony, rhythmic constructs,
the melodic forays we work through, and most importantly the development
of relationships. There was a great fellowship for the desire to create
music and support others who create music in the AACM. The bottom line
is to support and promote creative music and the people who do that
collectively. I think the EHE has stayed true to that.
M:
Are you still teaching now?