Jazz Articles about Raphe Malik

Raphe Malik: Last Set & Sympathy

by Clifford Allen
December 9, 2004

What is sometimes sorely missed among the current crop of players in the jazz “tradition" (and by “tradition" I mean both straight-ahead and free music) is a sense of weight. This weight, or gravity, is both sonic and metaphysical and improvised music is at a loss without it. While he was a regular member of the ensembles of Cecil Taylor and altoist Jimmy Lyons in the '70s, it is somewhat rare to hear Malik leading his own ensembles and stepping ...

Raphe Malik Quartet: Last Set: Live at the 1369 Jazz Club

by Trevor MacLaren
December 7, 2004

After leaving the Cecil Taylor Unit in 1979, Raphe Malik seemed to have disappeared until his first record as a leader appeared in 1989 ( 21st Century Texts ). Last Set proves that Malik was not only playing, but he was cutting some incredible chops.

Taken from the last set of a two-night engagement at Boston's 1369 Club in 1984, Last Set is an amazing exercise in live free improvisation. It features the late free jazz icon Reverend ...

Malik, McPhee, Robinson: Sympathy

by Dan McClenaghan
June 15, 2004

Trumpeter Raphe Malik, who spent much of the '70s and '80s playing with free pianist Cecil Taylor's band, has been described as “an exuberant and rough-hewn player"; and the Taylor lineage would suggest a propensity toward the free-flying approach. But on Sympathy the sound can best be described as introspective or searching, and even—to these ears, which have delved deeply into free jazz—melodic and accessible.The set is a trio effort, with Donald Robinson on the drums and the ...

Raphe Malik: Companions

by Kurt Gottschalk
August 25, 2003

It's hard to imagine 45 years, hence that one of the things that was so controversial about Ornette Coleman's emergence was that he gave up on employing a pianist. The sax/trumpet/bass/drum quartet has become commonplace in the modern jazz world since that time (Other Dimensions in Music and Masada leap to mind as two of today's standard bearers), and the lineup freed of the tonal anchors of the piano has become central to the growth of the free improvisation language. ...

Raphe Malik: Speak Easy

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 2002

Raphe Malik, a master trumpeter who has established his versatility in a variety of improv contexts, turns inward on his new solo record, Speak Easy. Solo trumpet records are a rarity in jazz, and a major challenge to the performer. Malik rises to the occasion and delivers 47 minutes of persuasive music.

The general impression here is a very strong sense of linearity. Malik's performances here are a bit difficult to resolve in terms of composition vs. improvisation, but that's ...

Malik/ McBee/ Moffett: Storyline

by Derek Taylor
May 1, 2000

P>Raphé Malik’s discography as a leader is painfully small; especially considering the amount of time he’s spent as an active player on the jazz scene. An FMP date, a pair of Eremites, and a stray session for Mapleshade comprise his complete available output. But rather than being the outcome of any frailty on Malik’s part such a state of affairs is more the result of his uncompromising resolve when it comes to the integrity of his music. Players unwilling to ...

Malik / McBee / Moffett: Storyline

by Robert Spencer
April 1, 2000

While the trumpet is often a lead instrument in jazz, trumpet trios like this one, and even trumpet quartets, are not that common. The trumpet is a demanding instrument. To play it within an ensemble places a large physical and musical burden on the trumpeter - so that only an unusually forceful musician like Raphe Malik can make a successful go of a trumpet trio. Storyline is one such success.

Malik is joined by two other masters: bassist Cecil McBee ...