(c) Alexis Maryon

Saxophonist, composer, actor, and tap dancer, Idris Ackamoor is the founder of The Pyramids in 1972, resurrected ten years ago. Since 2010 the band has toured throughout the world with original members and a line-up of new players. As for this brand new album, ‘An Angel Fell’ produced by Malcolm Catto and recorded during an intense week at Quatermass studios in London. Time to go back to the complete story of this under known master.

In Land of Ra we can see a tribute to Sun Ra. Did you know him? What was his influence?
The original name of the composition was “Land of Jah” as a tribute to the beautiful Island of Jamaica. I changed it when I updated the composition adding lyrics and a new reference to “Land of Ra” referencing a double meaning to the Egyptian Ra, god of the sun, as well as a tribute to Sun Ra. I did not know Sun Ra personally but I always was inspired by his music and theatrical stage performances. He is still one of my favorite composers and performers. Equally, I have always loved Marshall Allen’s and John Gilmore’s playing.

Cecil Taylor was also a mentor, who was looking for other ways. What was your relationship with him?
Cecil was one of my major influences musically and philosophically and one of my greatest teachers along with my principle mentor, historic clarinet and reed master Andrew Cyrille (who had played with Jelly Roll Morton and Freddie Keppard in the 1920s), and the late alto saxophonist Charles Tyler. I was a student at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio and studying in the music department. One of my music professors, named John Ronsheim, wrote a large grant to bring Cecil Taylor and his group including the late Jimmy Lyons on alto, Andrew Cyrille on drums, dancer Ken Miller, percussionist Cliff Sykes, and poet James Thompson. Professor Ronsheim decided to give me a work-study job to help prepare the way for Cecil and his ensemble to come to Antioch. During Cecil’s stay he taught classes and conducted the Cecil Taylor Black Music Ensemble. I took Cecil’s classes and was a member of the Ensemble playing alto saxophone in the alto section, along with Jemeel Moondoc and Bobby Zankle, both of who are major innovators in the jazz world now.

Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor have been classified in free jazz, yet their music is often different in their intentions. What do you think of this word, free jazz? A paradoxical jail or a radical opening?
I don’t and never have used the word «free jazz». If someone wants to use that word to describe a certain genre of jazz I don’t really have a problem with it. I am not much into slogans, or types. I understand the need for marketing purposes to have a name to attempt to identify a category of music. However, I must quote one of the masters of African American music, Duke Ellington, who said, «There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.»

You toured in Africa during the 70’s… What did you find, discovered?
I found my true self! Africa was a spiritual and revelational journey and adventure for me. I will never forget it and it will always be a part of one of my greatest experiences and influences beyond all others. I took a musical and spiritual journey to Northern Ghana traveling to Tamale and Bolgatanga, Ghana. It lasted about two weeks and during that time I played with the Dagomba people of Tamale who introduced me to playing with the King’s drummers. I also journeyed to Bolgatanga and participated in several magical musical rituals and ceremonies including performing at the Second Burial of a Fra Fra King, as well as, undertaking a healing ritual in the African bush with a Shaman who performed the «ritual of the washing of the legs». I collected many instruments and also became a percussionist playing a variety of instruments including talking drums, balafons, and a variety of flutes.

Lalibela


 

When you were going back, you had recorded three Afro-jazz albums, “c” in 1973, “King of Kings” in 1974 and “Birth / Speed / Merging” in 1976 on independent labels. Why this choice of independence ?
I wanted a way to get the music of The Pyramids out to a wider audience. In America it was the time of crossover music and rock and roll, and this was the type of music that was being played on the radio as well as recorded by record companies. They were not recording the music of Cecil Taylor or The Pyramids. Cecil was already beginning to self-produce and distribute his music while he was at Antioch College. Sun Ra was also continuing to self-produce and distribute his music. It was a natural development for me to be inspired by these innovative and independent musicians who also wanted to take control of their own musical destiny. The Pyramids were some of the first DIY musicians to take control of their music and fiercely independent!

The first Pyramids LP’s from the 70’s are now strong collector’s pieces. Haw many of each of them have been printed at the time
We printed 1000 copies of ‘Lalibela’ and ‘King of ’ and 5000 copies of ‘Birth/Speed/’. Many of the Birth/Speed/Merging LPs we’re unfortunately lost during a move.

You have a special link with France since this is where your band, The Pyramids, was born. Tell us more about this episode?
I wrote a proposal to the Antioch College Abroad Program to leave America with three Antioch students (my ex-wife flutist Margo Simmons, and electric bassist Kimathi Asante) and travel to Europe and form a band and work. The college agreed to send us with the condition that we had to at least spend some time at a university for several months. Once we did this we would be on our own to form a band and attempt to find work as professional musicians. We selected the University of Besançon and we took 6 weeks of Intensive French. We arrived in this idyllic small city in the French countryside and began our year abroad! While we were at the University we each stayed in three different dormitories that were shaped a lot like a pyramid. Hence the name! Following the six week language program we were speaking French pretty good, but when we left after the end of the intensive we went to Paris and then to Amsterdam. While in Paris we were introduced to musicians like tenor saxophonist Frank Wright and we also met a young drummer our age named Donald Robinson. He became the first drummer with The Pyramids and followed us to Amsterdam and months later to Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Ayler’s and Pharoah’s messages (‘Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe’, ‘Love Is Everywhere,’ …), are spiritual jazz essence. Do people need now more than ever music with a message?
I have always believed that musicians are spiritual messengers! Just like the ancient griots of Africa musicians are the repository of the collective cultural memories of a people. Whether it is John Coltrane’s ‘Alabama’ as a homage to the four black schoolgirls killed in Birmingham, or Charlie Parker’s ‘Now’s The Time’, the powerful music of Bob Marley or Fela Kuti, or ‘Soliloquy For Michael Brown’ from my album. These are the compositions and the musicians I most admire and listen to. Musicians who are not afraid to compose and play music with a positive message. I also loved the freedom and uncompromising music of early Albert Ayler whose very style and intensity sends its own kind of spiritual and political message! I was fortunate enough to study and play with Albert’s cousin and alto player, Charles Tyler.

Nsorama from King of Kings

 

We are witnessing a revival of spiritual jazz, also known as cosmic jazz, whose values you carry. What could be your definition of this music?
I can only define my music. As I mentioned before I understand the need to use words to categorize and market music. However, I am an Artistic Being! The music I play is cosmic in that it is expansive and encompasses the past, present and future of the Omniverse! I also live in San Francisco! In the early 70’s the city was the epicenter for mind altering drugs, flower power, and freedom. I love the music of Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone and Santana. But equally I grew up in Chicago. The home of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. I loved Martha and the Vandellas. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. And of course The Impressions. Then I was birthed into John Coltrane, nurtured by Cecil Taylor, destroyed and reinvented by Albert Ayler and the album “Bells”. Altoist Charles Tyler passed a message on to me I will never forget! Clifford King was truly «The King»! He taught me to play dogs and cats, lightning and rain, and invent my life. I mention all of the above because they are the aggregate of cosmic music…music of the Omniverse!

Your were a tap dancer, you had worked with Bill T. Jones, great choregrapher… What is your relationship to dance? Do you think music is a «body and soul» affair?
Yes, I am a tap dancer. Or more appropriately, a «hoofer». Legendary hoofer, the late Al Robinson, was my mentor and teacher. He taught me to tell stories with my feet. I am one of the repositories of amazingly complex and sublime «Al Robinson» steps. I also studied with the master Steve Condos. I also number Bill T. Jones as a friend and collaborator. His creativity and intellect is of the highest form. I danced a duet with Bill in the Cultural Odyssey production, “Perfect Courage”. Music is a «body and soul affair». I seek to be a very physical saxophonist with the stance of a basketball player at the free throw line. Breath to me is the most important aspect of my playing. I play like i’m swimming. Breathing deep, relaxed, but intense!

In your new album you talk about global apocalypse, climate change and the healing power of music. Why this title : An Angel Fell? A subliminal message?
Everyone who listens to the music and lyrics of “An Angel Fell” will have their own story to tell. It is my phantasmagoric journey just below the service of awareness. Something I dreamed or thought I dreamed but in fact it was a reality. A love story. A story of loss and recovery. A story of memory, minds, bodies, and spirits crossing time… falling through space. What’s your story?

When we see the coming to power of many nationalists, including Donald Trump in the USA, but also in India, Japan or Europe, are you pessimistic about the future of the planet?
I don’t have a pessimistic bone in my body! I embrace the positive and hope abounds. I’m from a people who were taken as slaves and who triumphed against all odds! My mother was one of those golden warriors. I saw my father (who is now 96 years old) stand up fearless looking into the barrel of a gun held by a white man. I was there as a teenager helping him as a janitor in the sixties. So, no I am not pessimistic about the future of the planet. I have seen real live angels in my life… they are everywhere… in the prisons, on the playgrounds, next door…

Tinoge

 

What are the main dangers for the next years ?
Indifference! Listen to the album.

The political commitment was very strong in the 70’s, and again there is a movement of more militant musicians. Do you believe that music is the weapon of the future, as Fela said?
A friend of mine said, «Musicians are the ambassadors of the soul». I believe this. For me weapons and music are diametrically opposed! Try to live one day without music in your life! Music is omnipresent! The eyes are the windows into the soul and the ears are the black hole into space. Music is change and change is music! See the clouds part with the sun. It’s a new start everyone!

“Tinoge” is co-written with Max Weissenfeldt and a few others. Are you surprised by this new generation, who often knows history better than many jazz specialists?
There are many of the new generation who respect what came before but are not anchored to it. I find it exciting when genres are broken down and barriers come tumbling down! Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down! Musicians young and old have to speak with one voice, blow with one horn to tumble down walls of hatred, disrespect, and division.

How did you work with Malcolm Catto? What did he bring you?
Malcolm gave 100% to the recording! He has such large ears and the ability to help guide and produce a recording session in a respectful and mutually supportive manner. The more we worked together the better we understood each other. I found him to be very nurturing of my compositional needs and vision for the album which was worked out in my waking dreams for many years.

Are you going to perform on stage with Heliocentrics?
I am ready anytime!!!! And would love it!

Check the complete new record on Strut website

Albert Ayler
Truth is Marching

 
«What can you say about the holy ghost Albert Ayler? This is the sound of the universe crying and exploding into infinity. My favorite musician with his 1966 quintet (my favorite of all his groups) that toured Europe that year destroying the minds and ears of anyone who was lucky enough to hear them… The truth is certainly marching in!!!»
 

Alice Coltrane
Something About John Coltrane

 
«The high priestess of the cosmic truth at her peak. ‘Journey in Satchidananda’ is truly a pinnacle in a discography that is untouchable. With Cecil McBee on bass, Pharoah Sanders on Soprano saxophone, percussions, Rashid Ali, on drums, Tulsi on Tambura and Magid Shabazz on bells and tamborine. This is the definition of spiritual jazz. A high point in a genre that is a deep well of numerous classics and some of the finest music made by human beings.»
 

Terry Riley and Don Cherry
Koln

 
«Two masters in one room. The results are truly breathtaking. This is what they should have sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft instead of Beethoven. This is music beyond the realm of our pedestrian confines. This is the sound of harnessing the molecular poetry of the earth’s many invisible life’s frequencies. This is transcendental music that is the fuel for astral travel and oneness and nothingness. It is the very double helix of it all!»
 

Irène Schweizer Trio
Sun Love

 
«A landmark recording made in 1967 in Germany on MPS (part of a series of 3 LPs that featured this kind of Euro/Asia/N.Africa trist). Just read the following line-up of musicians. This is what “fusion” was supposed to mean in its truest sense. A sublime crossover of Euro avant-psych and jazz and Hindustani raga explorations that transcends genre and geography. These cats meld into an eight headed cobra that hypnotizes anyone that hears this music.»
 

Baligh Hamdi
Gada

 
«Baligh Hamdi, Egypt’s answer to Morricone? Gainsbourg/Vannier? Van Dyke Parks? Who knows? But Baligh Hamdi IS the most important Arabic composer of the 20th century! He wrote for Oum Kalthoum, Abdul Halim Hafez, Warda, and many other icons of the Arabic musical canon. Here is a single that shows him to plow through the crossover world of “Oriental Jazz”. A shuffling, jerk twist, beat driven dance floor banger from a genius composer that could do no wrong in his massive discography! A reissue of his material coming soon from yours truly!»

As JC, he waited to be 33 to reveal his talents to the world. Born in Los Angeles, the saxophonist was brought up in a musical environment and began his professional career with new millenary. He has since played with numerous musicians, in various styles. In the Gerald Wilson big band, who was a guide for him, and with leaders such as Stanley Clarke or Raphael Saadiq, but also with Snoop Dogg or Lauryn Hill. During all those years, he took his time to find his own voice. His sound, a true singularity who is nevertheless reminiscent of his elders. A well-known partner of singer Kendrick Lamar, friend of bass player Thundercat, Kamasi Washington has now achieved fame of his own with his astonishing debut solo record, released by Braindfeeder, Flying Lotus’s label. Consisting in more than 3 hours of music, in a boxset of 3 LPs, the totemic ‘Epic’ finally puts this composer on the frontline. No doubt, a new Jazz star is born!

Photos by Mike Park

You grew up in Los Angeles what did you listen to as a teenager?
So the answer to this question is a little complicated because in my early teenage years is when I started to take music really seriously and I was kind of all over the place. I was really into Hip Hop and RnB from my earlier childhood, I had already liked jazz but by then I was really into it, I was also getting into European Classical music because of new friends I was making at my high school which was a music academy. So I was listening records like Snoop Dogg’s “The Doggfather”, Tupac “All Eyez On Me”, Nas “It Was Written”, Busta Rhymes “When Disaster Strikes”, Lee Morgan “The Gigolo”, John Coltrane “Transitions”, McCoy Tyner “The Real McCoy”, Eric Dolphy “Out to Lunch”, Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”, Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” and a lot of other stuff.

When did you start music? Why saxophone?
My father is a musician so I started music very young at around 2 on drums, then around 5 I started playing the piano, then clarinet at 7. When I was around 11 or 12 I got really into Art Blakey’s The Jazz Messengers. My dad who is a saxophone player wouldn’t let me play saxophone because he wanted me to learn clarinet first. In fact he told me that they were the same and if I couldn’t play the clarinet then I wouldn’t be able to play the saxophone. So by 12 I was really trying to play songs from my favorite jazz records all of which had saxophone players. So the clarinet is similar to the saxophone but it’s not the same at all but I didn’t know that so I was trying to learn this music and it was so hard to try to play Charlie Parker solos on a clarinet and have them sound like he did. So one day my dad left his soprano sax out and I took it and from the first note I was already better than I was on clarinet. It was crazy because I didn’t even really know the fingerings but I instantly figured them out and I had been listening to so many saxophone players that I already sounded like one. There was no going back for me at that point my dad had to give in. It was kind of surreal.

What were/are your mentors? References?
My first and biggest mentor is my father Rickey Washington. He started me in music and has guided me my whole life. But I’ve learned a lot from many different people. After my father I would say a man named Reggie Andrew’s was my second biggest mentor. He was also my father’s teacher and a staple educational figure in the African American music community of Los Angeles since the 70s. Everyone in my band and most of the musicians that are really doing a lot in music in Los Angeles come up through him. Then there was the great Gerald Wilson who was one of Reggie Andrew’s heroes. I started with Gerald very young and played with him for almost 15 years and learned so much about the history of jazz, he was born in 1918 so he was there first hand. All of my idols were his friends. Harmonically he was my biggest influence so much of what I play comes from all those years hearing the dense one of kind harmonies he wrote for hi big band. There are literally dozens of others that I can and probably should mention like Issac Smith, Stanley Clarke, Harvey Mason, plus many many more but my dad, Reggie, and Gerald are my top 3.

Cherokee

What is the influence of Gospel and Soul in your music?
I mentioned earlier that when I first picked up the sax the connection was instantaneous. So literally that next Sunday my dad took me to play at my uncle’s church. My uncle played organ and piano. So my dad still hadn’t taught me the fingerings though I had figured most of them out by my self. Before this my dads approach to teaching me was very technical we would read every thing and used a lot of method books but when I switched to sax he wanted to develop my ear so he took me to church to play gospel. I grew up going to church so I knew all the songs but hadn’t played any of them before. So I had to use my ears and figure everything out. It was a little hard at first but after a while I could play any song that I could sing in my head. So you can say that I really learned how to play music through gospel. And I’ve always played gospel and I still to this day play at church.

Is there a specific California sound, for jazz or hip hop? If so how would you define it?
Though there is a vibe to the State of California as a whole but it’s too big to speak of one sound for it there are lots of sounds. Even my City of Los Angeles is really big and there are lots pockets that each have their own sound. The sound that many people are now starting to recognize is the sound from an area in south central Los Angeles called The Leimert Park Village. There is definitely a very specific sound from there. This sound really derives from all over south central, and the east side of Los Angeles but Leimert is the hub. That sound that you here on my album and the jazz elements of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly comes from Leimert. That’s where myself and everyone in my band came up plus people like Terrace Martin and Issac Smith came up there too. It’s the center of African American Culture in Los Angeles. Growing up there we had three clubs that we went to. The World Stage, a club that jazz great and LA native Billy Higgins started. 5th Street Dicks the late night heavy modern jazz club that bands like Black Note grew out of. And Project Blowed a underground hip hop club that spawned groups like Freestyle Fellowship. We went to all of them all of the time. So the jazz from that area has roots in the classic forms of jazz from the world stage with a modern fire behind it with large influences from hip hop, RnB, and funk plus there’s an avant garde legacy left by masters like Horace Tapscott that’s mixed in there too.

You recorded three records in three years. Why such an emergency? What did you have to say?
So being a musician of a certain caliber a demand will grow for your services. Myself and everyone in my band were always gigging and going on the road. However at first and for a long time at least for me it wasn’t in jazz. My first tour was with Snoop Dogg and I stayed with him for years. Then my next big gig was with Raphael Saadiq and then Lauryn Hill. I love all styles of music and really enjoyed playing with all three of those legendary musicians but jazz was where my heart was. But during this time the only time I played jazz was in LA when I got home off the road. The same was true of many of my friends so we started recording and writing and playing as much as we could. I was making pretty good money so I built a recording studio in the back of my house. And I made a few records. The first two were just to document what we were doing musically. The gospel record I made for my grandfather as a present. I didn’t really push any of the records out but I had to make them to keep myself intact.

Do you feel you have evolved in terms of aesthetics during the last ten years ? more on the saxophone or in the compositions?
Yes I’ve grown a lot on the saxophone and in composition. First there’s so much music that I’ve been exposed to over the last ten years that has inspired me in my own music. Then on the saxophone I’ve come to a place where I truly except who I am and I am able to play what ever comes to me instead of feeling the need to prove who I am. It sounds really subtle but it’s a really big difference so often musicians get in their own way because they want to show that they can do this and that, and they know this and that. So they end up just playing this and that and never get to what really inside of them. It’s difficult because there’s the need to hone in your skills and a pressure to show that you have skills before other musicians will accept you. But I’ve learned to look past all of that because the greatest music that I will ever be able to make is the music that comes from my heart. In composition I’ve evolved in the size and scope of my ambitions. I no longer limit myself in what I hear in my head I just write it and figure out how to make it happen later.

You play the sax a lot on this record but in the end the listener gets to meet a new composer, a real author. How do you deal with this double hat?
Well the only real difficulty is that there are only 24 hours in a day. So what ends up happening to me is my focus becomes seasonal. So some weeks and even months at times I’m just really into the sax and I’m developing different aspects of the horn or different concepts of things I can play. Then some times I’m really inspired to write and music is just flowing out of me. And I like it this way because sometimes you need to step away from things to get a good perspective I feel that when I step away from the saxophone to compose when I come back to my regiment on the saxophone I’m rejuvenated and excited to get back in with a fresh perspective. And when I haven’t composed in a while I feel like the music that come is fresh and uninhibited by things I’ve already done.

Re Run Home

How long have you been working with The Next Step?
Is a band I started about ten years ago but it comes from a collective we now call the West Coast Get Down. The West Coast Get Down are a group of musicians that I’ve been friends with my whole life. They are Ronald and Stephen Bruner, Cameron Graves, Miles Mosley, Ryan Porter, Brandon Coleman, Tony Austin, and Patrice Quinn. We’ve been making music together our whole lives. I’ve known Ronald since I was three and Stephen since he was born, their dad and my dad played together. Brandon went to the same elementary school as Ronald and Stephen we met almost ten years before he started playing piano. Tony Austin is a little older than us but he went to the same school and we met him at the same time. I met Ryan in junior high in a program called Jazz America and I met Miles and Cameron in high school. I met Patrice Quinn last in my first year of collage. So we’ve been together a long time.

How did you record? Is it the music sum accumulated for seven years?
So about three years ago all the members of The West Coast Get Down decided to take a whole month off from doing any shows or tours and just focus on each other and record each others music. So we were in the studio 7 days a week from 11am-2am for thirty days. And we recorded an incredible amount of music like 190 songs, 8 albums, almost 2 terabytes of music. So I walked away with 45 songs recorded! My new album The Epic is made of my favorite tracks from that 45. For my music the whole band, two drummers, upright bass, electric bass, piano, keyboards, sax, trombone, and trumpet all recorded together in the same room. I wanted everyone to feel free to be spontaneous. If you try overdub then everyone is locked to what ever you record first. I encouraged them all to be as open as they wanted and to shape the music as they heard it. Then for the nine tracks that have strings and choir I wrote that music around what the band had already recorded. I felt like I would get the best of both worlds that way. I could the arrangements be as rich and full as I wanted them to be without limiting the spontaneous creativity.

Your universe reminds us a lot of Horace Tapscott, your California elder.
Yes I love Horace Tapscott! I love his music, his philosophies, and everything he did for the community that I grew up in. I only got to play with him once when I was really young at jam session at The World Stage. But his band The Pan African Peoples Arkestra has continued after his death under the leadership of Michael Sessions and I’ve played with them many times. Yes I’m a big fan all the records that came out on Black Jazz Records. They were really popular in LA and very important to that sound of Leimert Park that I talked about earlier.

How is the crossing of the jazz epic?
The Epic is doing very well so far people are really into it! I hope to bring as many of the members of The Next Step and The West Coast Get Down on the tour as I can. I hope we’re able to bring this music all over the world. I feel like the music we are making speaks to people in way that has been missing for a while. In LA we play at non-jazz clubs all the time for people who if you asked them before the show if they liked jazz they would say absolutely not but after they’re so into it they fighting to try and figure out how they can get more of the music. So we want to go out and share this all over the world. Hopefully it will happen.

How/when did you sign on Brainfeeder?
I meet Flying Lotus a long time ago when I was like 17 I won the John Coltrane competition and he was there with Ravi Coltrane. I think he was like 13 the same age as Thundercat who was playing with me. I think he and Thundercat stayed in touch. I didn’t see Lotus again till about 7 or 8 years ago. I knew that he and Thundercat had been working together and we randomly ran into each other at a jam session. Then a few years later he asked me if I’d like to do a record on Brainfeeder and I was like YES! Being on Brainfeeder has been great. It has definitely given me a lot more exposure and introduced me to a wider audience for sure but more than that it was cool because Lotus encouraged me to do what ever I wanted and that opened my mind to it’s self.

(this interview was published on a shorter version in French, for Jazz News Magazine)

 

His website, with european tour dates (november 15th, Paris Le Trabendo)

http://kamasiwashington.com/

 

His Top 5