Spirits Rejoice! With the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble in Baltimore

by Anthony Medici in Concert Reviews, Musician Reviews, Reviews

I was flat, under the weather, not inclined to move from the couch.  All week long, co-workers were shuffling about, afflicted with flu, colds, sneezing, coughing- you get the picture.  Some of those flu bugs seemed to have jumped ship and joined me.  On top of that, even the weather was flat: cold, damp, with rain and sleet in the forecast.  Plenty of excuses to stay home.   But the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble was playing at An Die Musik in Baltimore, and I knew I had to go.  It was a night “wondrous strange.”

For those not familiar with the Ethic Heritage Ensemble, the group, in its current configuration, consists of leader and musical shaman, Kahil El’Zabar on drums, earth drums, kalimba, and percussion; redoubtable Ernest Khabeer Dawkins, on alto and tenor sax; and trumpet phenom Corey Wilkes on trumpet and flugelhorn, with both Dawkins and Wilkes filling in on small instrument  percussion as the occasion demanded.   When I last saw the EHE, at Songa, in Takoma Park, Maryland, violinist and dynamic spirit Billy Bang was sitting in with the group (Wilkes had not yet become a member).  Spirits were high at that show; it concluded with the entire audience dancing out to the street behind the band members as the music played on.  When was the last time you saw that?  This is a band you have to see live. 

When I exited I-95 for downtown Baltimore, I ran into traffic gridlocked through the entire downtown area.  The trip to North Charles Street, normally 5-7 minutes, took me 25 minutes.  Apparently the band was having no better luck.  The EHE had not arrived by the 8:00PM start time.  Nervous promoter, manager, and audience members milled about, but the mood was mellow.  The EHE generates more than respect; it generates a feeling of family.  You wait for your brother with expectation.  Finally, the band broke through the gridlock and quickly set up. 

The EHE opened with a incantory rendition of “Pharoah Sanders,”  with El’Zabar on an amplified kalimba, which Wikipedia describes as, “a sound box with metal keys attached to the top to give the different notes. It is also known as the African thumb piano.”   El’Zabar got a beautiful mood and sound from the instrument.  El’Zabar is  more than just a drummer.  He is a complete percussionist and rhythm maker.  Driving the beat with his booted right foot, to which an anklet of small bells is attached, he generates a deep rhythmic  percussion that many drummers are hard-pressed to accomplish with oversize drum kits.  When El’Zabar does take his seat at the drum kit, he produces everything from whispered suggestions to might roars, but within the story of the song.  The absence of a bassist was never an issue.  As if this was not enough. El’Zabar accompanies his playing  with vocalizing, scatting and a throaty singing that has the effect of both driving and humanizing the music.   I call him a shaman because of his unmatched ability to generate mood and feeling, to take performance into the musical spirit world.   

The second number could have served as any band’s show stopper.  The spirit of George Braith and Rahsaan Roland Kirk was suddenly in the air, as Wilkes decided to play both trumpet and flugelhorn simultaneously, a feat I had never seen before on those instruments, and a demonstration of virtuosity that I will not soon forget.  Not to be outdone, Dawkins grabbed  alto and tenor sax and played simultaneously as well.  With all four instruments in the mix, and El’Zabar laying down a ferocious beat on the drums, a glorious wave of sound engulfed the room.  A memorable moment. 

The third number, “Salt Peanuts,” with El’Zabar on conga, Wilkes on trumpet, and Dawkins on alto, was dedicated to Dizzy and Bird.  El’Zabar reminded the audience that this music was radical in its time.  As he said, the purpose of jazz is “to advance the form, not just chronicle the form, that’s the real tradition of jazz.”  Beautifully stated.  The EHE itself moves from bop to post-bop to free, integrating African rhythms and motifs while keeping that Chicago bluesy feeling. 

After an intermission, the EHE returned with “Impressions,” in which Dawkins let loose with a monster solo, and Wilkes, like a man possessed,  literally swung trumpet and body in wild horizontal and vertical sweeps while continuing to play heatedly, a possession that grabbed him at various moments during the music, when the feeling seemed to require an equivalent  passionate movement o express. 

The next number , “Kahari Walk Tall,” was dedicated to El’Zabar’s son.  Again, El’Zabar got a beautiful feeling from the kalimba, while Dawkins and Wilkes mined  a deep  vein of blues.   

The final number, “There Is,” brought it all together and elevated the whole room.  The concert finished with the audience on its feet.  I knew why I had to come to this concert.

As I drove back to DC, the rain and sleet started to fall.  I was tired.  But my spirit…..ah, my spirit was lifted!