Hasaan Ibn Ali

Hasaan Ibn Ali was a jazz pianist and composer from Philadelphia who is celebrated as a seminal music theorist and technician, and a profound influence on jazz musicians he encountered. The pianist's journey is largely apocryphal. He played on only one record during his lifetime: The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan from Atlantic in 1965. Its tunes were composed by Ibn Ali and performed with Roach and bassist Art Davis. Though recorded with the idea of establishing the pianist's reputation, his outspokenness, legal troubles, and advanced techniques kept him in obscurity. In August and September of 1965, Ibn Ali cut an album for Atlantic with saxophonist Odean Pope, Davis, and drummer Kalil Madi, but it was shelved, and subsequently lost. The rediscovered master was released by Omnivore in 2021 as Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album, and was followed later that year by Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings. In 2023, Omnivore issued Reaching for the Stars: Trios/Duos/Solos. Its six trio recordings included bassist Henry Grimes and Madi, three piano/vocal duets with Muriel Winston, and two piano solos. Hasaan Ibn Ali was born William Henry Langford, Jr. in 1931. His father was a line cook and his mother a domestic. He taught himself the piano as a child by listening to boogie woogie records; he also played trumpet in the school band and got his first professional gig with Joe Morris' big band at age 15. Four years later and not quite 20, he was playing piano exclusively, deeply under the influence of pianist Elmo Hope, whom he had met during the mid- to late '40s. Hope's complex rhythmic approach proved foundational to the development of Ibn Ali's jazz theory. He would practice all day and all evening, fully supported in his efforts by his parents. In 1950, he played informally with neighbor John Coltrane, trading harmonic and tonal ideas. They allegedly made a tape of one of their practice sessions, but it has never surfaced. He also played locally with trumpeters Clifford Brown and Miles Davis, trombonist J.J. Johnson, drummer Max Roach, and others. Ibn Ali established a reputation in Philadelphia as an original composer and theorist. He spent time commuting back and forth to New York during the late '50s and early '60s playing with Horace Arnold and in a trio with vanguard bassist Henry Grimes. He played at Max Roach's home a lot, either solo or with other visiting musicians. The Library of Congress possesses a solo tape of Ibn Ali playing in Roach's living room in 1964. As Ibn Ali's reputation spread among musicians, Roach endeavored to showcase the pianist's talent to the outside world. He convinced Nesuhi Ertegun to record Ibn Ali. The producer agreed but only under the condition that the drummer was credited as bandleader. Cut in late 1964, The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan appeared from Atlantic in the spring of 1965. By all accounts, the label was quite pleased with their new signing and arranged another session that August. Accompanied by Pope, Davis, and Madi, Ibn Ali cut another program of eight originals and alternate takes. The label invited the bandleader back to New York to take part in the mixing sessions, but he had been incarcerated on narcotics charges and sent Pope in his place. When Atlantic discovered the reason for the pianist's absence, they shelved the project. A copy of the master was dubbed and put away. (Rahsaan Roland Kirk claimed to have heard it during a Warner office visit during the mid-'70s and wanted to build a recording session based on it.) Ultimately, the discarded session was thought lost in a large warehouse fire in 1978. It sat in a vault for some 46 years. In the aftermath of that session, Ibn Ali scuffled in Philadelphia for decades afterward. He played with local musicians, taught a bit, and got sporadic bandstand work. He died in a homeless shelter in 1980. In 2017, a discussion between jazz professor and pianist Lewis Porter and historic jazz collector and sound recordist Alan Sukoenig led to former Rhino Records associate producer Patrick Milligan enlisting friends who located the lost Ibn Ali album tape in the Warner vault. In 2018, a painstaking remastering process began. The producers discovered that "Per Aspera Ad Astra," one of the eight tunes from the original sessions, didn't survive as it was on a separate session tape from September 1965. They prepared the remaining seven selections and added three shorter alternates of album tracks. Omnivore Recordings finally issued Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album in March 2021. That November, Omnivore released Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings. A double-length set, it featured tapes of Ibn Ali informally rehearsing solo in lounges at the University of Pennsylvania, an unreleased demo, and in apartments in Philly and New York between 1962 and 1965. The tapes were drawn from the permanent collection at Rutgers University's Institute of Jazz Studies. In addition to the music, the set included a booklet offering rare photos and liner essays by Matthew Shipp, and set producers Lewis Porter and Alan Sukoenig. In November 2023, another Ibn Ali project, Reach for the Stars: Solos/Duos/Trios was released. Co-produced by Sukoenig and label boss Cheryl Pawelski, its unissued material included six selections in trio with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Kalil Madi, three duos with vocalist Muriel Winston, and two solo piano compositions.
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