Hasaan Ali, a Philadelphia-based jazz composer and pianist, is widely regarded as a pioneering technician and theorist. He also had a profound influence on the lives of all jazz musicians who were in contact with him. Odean Pope was a saxophonist who worked with him extensively in the 1960s and 1970s. He claims that John Coltrane’s dense harmonic concept for Giant Steps as well as his later “sheets” approach to jazz were directly inspired by Ibn Ali. They had been friends since the 1950s and played together informaly during those early years. However, the story of the pianist’s life is mostly apocryphal. He only issued one recording in his life. Atlantic issued the Max Roach Trio Featuring The Legendary Hasaan in 1965. Ibn Ali composed all seven songs and performed them with Roach, Art Davis, and Bassist Art Davis. Although the album was intended to make the pianist a leading-tier jazz musician, Ali’s outspokenness, advanced technique and legal problems kept him from being well-known. Ibn Ali recorded another album with Pope, Davis and Kalil Madi for Atlantic in August and September 1965. However, it was lost and later thought to have been lost in a fire. Omnivore released Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album in 2021 after the master was rediscovered. Hasaan Ibn Ali was born William Henry Langford, Jr. in 1931. His father was a cook, and his mother was a domestic. As a child, he learned the piano by listening to boogie woogie records. He also played trumpet in school bands and received his first professional gig at the age of 15. He was playing the piano all the time four years later, not even 20. This was thanks to Elmo Hope, who he had first met in the late- to mid 1940s. Hope’s rhythmic approach was crucial to the development Ibn Ali’s theory of jazz. His parents supported him in all his endeavors and he would practice every day. He played with John Coltrane informally, exchanging harmonic and tonal ideas. The tape they made of one of their practice sessions is not known to have been released. He was also a local musician, playing with Miles Davis and Clifford Brown, as well as J.J. Johnson, Max Roach, and drummer Max Roach. Ibn Ali was a Philadelphian composer and theorist who earned a good reputation. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he commuted to New York with Horace Arnold and a trio of vanguard bassist Henry Grimes. Max Roach was a frequent host for him, whether he was solo or in a group with other musicians. The Library of Congress has a single tape of Ibn Ali in Roach’s living-room in 1964. Roach sought to promote the talent of Ibn Ali to the outside world as Ibn Ali gained a reputation among musicians. He convinced Nesuhi Ertegun to record Ibn Ali. Producer agreed to record Ibn Ali, but only if the drummer was also credited as bandleader. The Max Roach Trio featuring the Legendary Hasaan was cut in late 1964. It appeared on Atlantic in the spring 1965. According to all reports, the label was pleased with their new signing. They arranged another session in August. Ibn Ali, along with Pope, Davis, Madi and Madi, created another program that included eight originals as well as alternate takes. The label invited Ibn Ali back to New York to mix the tracks, but he was already in prison on narcotics charges. They sent Pope to his place. Atlantic found out the reason the pianist was absent and decided to cancel the project. The master was dubbed, and the copy was put away. It was claimed that Rahsaan Roland Kirk heard the master during a Warner office visit in the mid-’70s. He wanted to record a session on it. The session was eventually tossed in a warehouse fire in 1978. It was kept in a vault for 46 years. Ibn Ali was a scuffler in Philadelphia for many decades after that session. He was a musician, taught a little, and did occasional bandstand work. In 1980, he died in a shelter for homeless people. A conversation between Lewis Porter, a jazz pianist and Lewis Porter, a former Rhino Records associate producer, and Alan Sukoenig (historic jazz collector and sound recordist), led to Patrick Milligan, a former Rhino Records producer, enlisting the help of friends who found the missing Ibn Ali album cassette in the Warner vault. The meticulous remastering began in 2018. Producers discovered that Per Aspera Ad Astra, one of the eight original tracks, had been lost. It was found on a separate tape from September 1965. The remaining seven tracks were prepared and three alternates of the album tracks were added. Omnivore Recordings finally released Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album in March 2021.
