“Mahawara (The Fugue)” (1959) – Ahmed Abdul-Malik * Written by Ahmed Abdul-Malik * Produced by Lee Schapiro * LP: East Meets West * Label: RCA Victor
An active double-bass sideman in the New York City jazz scene, Ahmed Abdul-Malik also specialized in the oud. The six albums he released under his own name between 1958 and 1964 drifted, often mid-song, from middle eastern meditations to the jazz conventions you’d otherwise expect from that era. The drifts sometimes sounded obligatory, as if to make the exotic sounds more palatable to standard jazz audiences. His East Meets West album on RCA Victor circulated widest, being his only one shouldered by a major label. On its “Mahawara (The Fugue),” you can hear him doing an “East never meets West” approach, with no jazz departures. His bass, a violin, qanun (middle eastern dulcimer) and dumbek (hand drum) all stay in the forefront. The music scholar Robin D.G. Kelly, in his Africa Speaks, America Answers (2012), reveals that Abdul-Malik, who claimed Sudanese heritage throughout his lifetime, was actually born Jonathan Tim, Jr., the son of immigrants who had come to New York City from the island of St. Vincent.