2000 · Album
2 Days in April
Recorded 1999 (two live concerts in April) · Eremite · Produced by Michael Ehlers
Two Saxophones, No Compromise, Pure Combustion
Ferocious liveage featuring two killer veteran saxophonists and maybe the best rhythm team in early 2000s free jazz.
By 1999, Hamid Drake was already a trusted voice in free jazz, having spent years building a reputation as a drummer who could listen as hard as he could swing. 2 Days in April (1999) isn't a turning point for him so much as a confirmation: this is what he does best — lock into conversation with musicians of equal intelligence and never let go. The pairing of saxophonists Fred Anderson and Kidd Jordan was their first recording together, though they'd crossed paths years earlier at an AACM concert in Chicago. What matters here is chemistry forged live, across two nights at universities in Massachusetts, with William Parker on bass creating a foundation that never settles.
The music sprawls. It sputters. It catches fire and holds it. Drake plays as a conversationalist, never overstating, always responding — the rhythm section with Parker feels less like accompaniment and more like a continuous argument about what jazz can do when nobody's chasing a hook or a verse. Anderson and Jordan don't trade solos in the traditional sense; they weave, they interrupt, they find moments of strange agreement before splitting apart again. There's tension here that doesn't resolve, which is exactly the point.
The Penguin Guide noted the music's intensity makes detachment impossible, and they meant it as a compliment wrapped in a warning. This isn't background music or a document of virtuosity on display. It demands presence. For listeners already deep in free jazz, it's essential. For others, it's proof that Drake belongs in any conversation about drummers who changed what rhythm could mean.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Hamid Drake
♫
New World Pygmies, Vol. 2 2001
Piercing the Veil 2001
Willisau & Taktlos 2004
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Emancipation Proclamation: A Real Statement of Freedom 2000
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
