[Ahmed] make music:

to listen, dance and think to.

about the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik. Music of heavy rhythm, repetition and syncopation set deep into an understanding of jazz and the obscure depths of its history.

that excavates, re-inhabits and uses a-new the now overlooked documents, and fragmentary plans, of his mid-20th century synthetic vision to produce a new jazz imagination for the 21st century.

The quartet of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright make music of heavy rhythm, repetition and syncopation set deep into an understanding of jazz and the obscure depths of its history. Across their 2021 LP ‘Nights on Saturn (Communication)’, the group work and re-work the music of the late musician Ahmed Abdul-Malik to create a stamping, swinging, relentlessly propulsive record where profundity and physicality root right back to ecstatic feeling.

Abdul-Malik was a NYC bassist, oudist, composer, educator and philosopher who fused aspects of American, Arabic and East African thought, ethics, meanings and beliefs in open and experimental ways to make vital, forward leaning jazz. And [Ahmed] reimagine the 'notes' of Malik as they push for new ground. Melodies respirate, swell, escalate and combust in a driving jazz which, yes, is technical, yes, is accomplished, but, ultimately just foot-to-the-floor swings.

Pat Thomas / piano
Antonin Gerbal / drums
Joel Grip / double bass
Seymour Wright / saxophone

Collected post-show audience feedback from Fielding Hope on [Ahmed]'s performance at Counterflows Festival, Glasgow, April 2nd 2022:

"There is a god"
"It's fucking techno"