On Rakalam Bob Moses of The Free Spirits
By Sean Aaron Cruz
Portland, Oregon—
“Drummer,
composer, artist, poet, dancer, visionary, nature mystic (Rakalam) Bob Moses's life has been a continuous
quest for vision, spirit, compassion, growth, and mastery in a multiplicity of
art forms.”—New England Conservatory
Among the four members of the legendary, pioneering jazz-fusion band The Free Spirits coming to Portland in August
to celebrate their friend and bandmate Jim Pepper is world-renowned master
drummer and educator Rakalam Bob Moses.
Photo by Andrew
Hurlbut
Born in New York City, Bob Moses began his career as a teenager performing
with the great Rahsaan Roland Kirk. In 1965, Bob Moses, guitarist Larry
Coryell, bassist Chris Hills, guitarist Columbus Chip Baker and Jim Pepper
formed The Free Spirits.
The Free Spirits jazz-rocked New
York City in 1965-67, releasing just one LP, Out of Sight and Sound, before parting, each taking his own path,
and now more than four decades later reuniting in the neighborhood where Jim
Pepper first picked up his saxophone.
Jim
PepperFest 2013: Rise of the Free Spirits
The Jim Pepper Native Arts
Festival
Parkrose
HS Performing Arts Center, Portland, Oregon
August
7-10, 2013
“I can see two major traditions or trains of
thought colliding and merging in my music.
“One is the path of the nature visionary;
one who can travel without moving, to and through various dimensions and planes
of reality. In my life I have seen through the veils, kissed butterflies,
envisioned animated three-dimensional scenes and stepped into those scenes,
talked to and played with spirits of other worlds, past, present and future. I
have been a flower, a mountain, a raging river, a stone….
“The other tradition or stream that I swim
in is the Great River of African Music in all its manifestations: the importance
of clave’, groove, swing, rhythm, dance, hip-shaking, rhythm and rhyme sublime,
shadows and light by day, by night, Jazz, Funk, Rhythm and Blues, Hip Hop, Rap,
Reggae, Calypso, Zouk, Soukous, Samba, Afro-Cuban, Salsa are all psychically if
not geographically emanating from Africa….
“So the streams merge and become one vast, deep,
infinite music:
“Music with groove
but no walls
Music with soul
but no boundaries
Music with roots
but no ceilings
Music of hope and
love and humor”
--Rakalam
Bob Moses, from When Elephants Dream of
Music
Trevor, from When Elephants Dream
of Music
–on Bob Moses’ When Elephants Dream of Music:
"Bob Moses
has now emerged as the possessor of one of the grander imaginations in
America's true classical music. No orchestral composer of this scope, mellow
wit, and freshly distinctive range of colors has come along since Gil
Evans."-Nat Hentoff, Modern Recording and Music
“Bob Moses, composer, drummer, poet, artist, conceptualizer, inspirer of
people, has created a musical environment that is balanced, between discipline
and freedom, compositional design and spontaneous inspiration. A party with a
purpose. This album is original, soulful, funny…and very special. I hope a lot
of people get as much enjoyment from it as I have”. –Gil Evans
–on On Time Stood Still
"Leave it to Moses, a multi-directional shamanistic groovilator, to
put all the pieces together. On Time Stood Still, another sprawling
production of DeMille-ian scale. He seamlessly blends Monk, funk, tap, hip hop,
bebop, big band, blues, Bahia, Tanzania, and the avant garde into one organic
package while paying homage to the spirits of Gil Evans, Charles Mingus,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Jaco Pastorius."-Bill Milkowski, Down
Beat
This article was written while the author was listening to and under the
influence of When Elephants Dream of
Music.
The Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival is a project of the Oregon Cultural
Heritage Commission and its partners:
The Regional Arts & Culture Council
Parkrose Neighborhood Association
Parkrose School District
Russellville Grange
Travel Portland
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