Rashied Ali & Sonny Fortune at Rime

[zula]

A friendly reminder, folks....Still some tickets available for Rashied Ali & Sonny Fortune at Rime (1130 Commercial Drive) on Sunday, June 5th. It's a dream come true for any jazz fan, to be able to hear these legends in an intimate 100 seater! I suggest you snag yours in advance, as there may be none available at the door.

Tickets available at Highlife Records on Commercial Drive & Zulu Records on 4th Ave. for $25 plus service charge per show (early show: 8 pm & late show: 10 pm). Rime also has some tix left without service charges.

Zula website
Rime website
Sonny Fortune website
Rashied Ali info

[Brian Nation]

It's a dream come true for any jazz fan, to be able to hear these legends in an intimate 100 seater!

I'll second that!

I don't often endorse gigs here (gotta be fair to everyone!) but this'll be one of the major music events of the year, I'm guessing. I only know Fortune from records, especially his searing, soulful contributions to several classic McCoy Tyner albums of the seventies. Rashied Ali I saw live years ago and his was one of the most astonishing performances on drums or on any instrument I've ever witnessed. Do not miss this if you can help it!

[zula]

Brian, they feed off of each other like you wouldn't believe...Sadly, they don't have an official duo recording, but I have this "official bootleg" from Umass/Amherst recorded in 2003 & maaaan, they're burnin'! Having never seen either player live, I'm really psyched about this, especially considering that "Live In Japan" is the first album that got me interested in more free-form music.

Of course, depending on whom you ask (Mr Fortune or Mr Ali), there's plenty of structure or it's mostly free...I hear both (see the Alex Varty article in this week's Straight & Chris Wong's piece in Wednesday's Courier). Mainly, what I hear is some honest, beautiful, creative fire music, played by two old friends, who happen to be masters...

Just so people know, we won't be serving food in the front end of Rime during the performance. We're also setting up our new, comfy leather chairs & stools in front of the stage for the first lucky 60 or so.

Looking forward...

[zula]

Beautifully written, insightful article on the dynamic duo by Greg Buium in today's Vancouver Sun -Arts & Life section. Check it out...

[zula]

Sorry, I guess, this should go to "Seen..Heard", but I'm guessing there won't be much response, though the place was absolutely packed. Killer performance by these two greats! You wanna talk high energy, man? 75 + minute rendition of "Impressions"!! Absolutely burning from start to finish! As a friend pointed out, for the first 60 or so minutes, that reed was glued to Sonny Fortune's lips! Rashied Ali is like a jackhammer, creating a weird and wonderful pulse, rhythmic patterns as big as Texas, non-stop... They are both very youthful and intense. As you can imagine, they pretty much just play the heads, then blow, moving right along doing their thing...! For the second show they did "Love For Sale" for an hour plus, followed by a sweet & graceful "In A Sentimental Mood." WOOW! One for the books. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday evening...

[Nou Dadoun]

Originally Posted by zula

For the second show they did "Love For Sale" for an hour plus, followed by a sweet & graceful "In A Sentimental Mood." WOOW! One for the books. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday evening...

I'll second that, the thing that amazed me the most about Fortune's playing was that for the whole time that they were doing Love for Sale, they almost never strayed away from the structure of the tune at all. It was like a real-time Goldberg Variations - hold the melody steady and experiment with the phrasing, or hold the phrasing steady and use different intervals, just about any variation you can think of. They played that tune inside out! Ali's playing was powerful but supportive and never overwhelming. Although the smooth segue to Sentimental Mood went without a moment's break, it had a definite 'encore' summing up feel to it. Overall, totally outstanding ... N