Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer

Anyone who was chair of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians for a decade knows a thing or two about keeping a group of independently minded artists focused on a common goal. Drummer and percussionist Kahil El'Zabar continues to demonstrate that with his Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, an acoustic, improvising trio with an African foundation that has been recording since 1981. Most of the musicians who have passed through the group have been longtime members. The 2023 lineup comprises trumpeter Corey Wilkes, on board since 2007, and baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, the newbie, who joined in 2019.

The gritty, groovecentric and exquisitely beautiful Spirit Gatherer is a tribute to Don Cherry, who was a profound influence on El'Zabar as a man and as a creative musician. The trio is joined by vocalist Dwight Trible and Cherry's son, pianist and melodica player David Ornette Cherry, producing a spiritual-jazz blinder that is a highwater mark of post-2000 jazz. The eleven tracks include six El'Zabar originals plus five covers of legacy material which El'Zabar associates in one way or another with Don Cherry: Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman," the John Coltrane tweak "Sketches Of A Love Supreme," Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't," Pharoah Sanders's "Harvest Time" and Cherry's own "Degi-Degi." (El'Zabar talks about his choice of repertoire in an interview to be published by AAJ later in April 2023).

The album is best summed up as "quietly shamanistic." Most of the time, "shamanistic" is used to describe high energy, high-decibel workouts which produce catharsis but not necessarily uplift. Spirit Gatherer is passionate but relatively softly spoken, its motor rhythms primal but harnessed, its lyricism unbroken. It is cleansing but it also leaves in its wake a feeling of harmony, love and optimism.

The opening track is El'Zabar's tribute "Don Cherry." The lyric is a simple repetition of the words "Don Cherry," an invocation that, framed by El'Zabar's percussion and Corey and David Cherry's lamenting trumpet and melodica, makes as meaning-packed a salute to Cherry as any long-form lyric could. Check the YouTube below. Next up is Coleman's "Lonely Woman." This time Trible offers a chilling one-verse recitative that seems to be about a neglected older woman, living out her final years forgotten, in poverty and uncared for. It is the only down moment on the album and is deeply moving. Other highlights include El'Zabar's self-explanatory "Bop On," a gloriously unreconstructed "Well You Needn't," and El'Zaba's noirish "The Opening." Three of the tracks are by the core trio only.

Solace for the soul, Spirit Gatherer's running time is seventy-five minutes but seems shorter.

Postscript: David Ornette Cherry suffered a fatal asthma attack in a London hotel room on November 20 2022. His final performance, earlier that evening at the Barbican Centre, was a tribute concert to his father with the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble.

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