Click on the photo to hear the album.
I learned earlier this week that Looking Ahead, one of the earliest albums by my late husband, Dr. Makanda Ken McIntyre, has been reissued on vinyl. (Looking Ahead is so retro, ha ha!). I am just delighted and wanted to share the good news with you.
Makanda was an exceptional jazz musician and composer who never got his due. He plays alto saxophone and flute on this album, as does Eric Dolphy, who fronts the band with him and also plays bass clarinet. Makanda and Eric were both very proficient on their instruments and were truly soul mates – it sounds as though they’ve been playing together forever. [They are supported by an all-star rhythm section of Walter Bishop Jr. (piano), Sam Jones (bass), and Art Taylor (drums).]
I’ve been listening to the album again all week – it feels like eavesdropping on a conversation between close friends. They play the melodies in unison, and then each takes solos. Makanda starts and Eric replies, each with call and response, theme and exposition, each making their clear statements within the structure of the genre. You can feel the love that they each have for one another, for their instruments, and the music. They straddle the line between innovation and tradition, stretching boundaries while still swinging.
Looking Ahead came out in 1960, a year after the iconic Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s Giant Steps. Jazz was evolving from swing and bebop to something broader and more modern. While the name of the album implies optimism, their futures did not turn out exactly as envisioned.
Eric Dolphy, who is much better known, would go on to join bands led by Charles Mingus and John Coltrane, but sadly would only live for a few more years. He died at the age of 36 of a diabetic coma in Europe in 1964.
Makanda went on to record 12 albums as a leader and had a great teaching career, but never got the recognition he deserved. After he died of a heart attack in 2001, I found nearly 400 compositions and 400 tapes, which we catalogued, digitized, and placed with the Library of Congress. He played 17 instruments, later regularly recording on bass clarinet, oboe, and bassoon in addition to the alto saxophone and flute on this album. A big band in Boston called the Makanda Project has been playing his music for over 20 years and will be performing in Brooklyn on October 26.
This is an iconic album and should be included in the collections of anyone who loves jazz.
May we all look ahead in our own lives with optimism and hope. And may we have dialogue with soul mates, and wonderful music to help us through.