Alumni: Trane's Drummers

Art Taylor

Elvin Jones

Rashied Ali

Rashied Ali

Rashied Ali has died at the age of 74. Ali was a major player in the avant garde scene of the late 1960s, replacing Elvin Jones in the drum chair of John Coltrane's group and also playing with Paul Bley and James "Blood" Ulmer, among others. He had not slowed down in the winter of his years, his trio with alto saxophonist Charles Gayle and bassist William Parker, dubbed By Any Means, played at Newport last weekend.

Hot House readers are recommended, nay required to listen to his work on Coltrane's Interstellar Space. Below is Venus, which Joe Lovano reviewed for Jazz.com recently:

In a way, Rashied Ali was playing more like a soloist along with the soloist, but they were finding all kinds of beautiful unisons within the counterpoint that they were creating with each other.

Image via JazzTimes