2002 · Album
Brothers Together
Recorded October 2000, PBS Studios, Westwood, Massachusetts · Eremite Records · Produced by Not specified
Two Voices in Intimate Conversation
Drake and Mateen create space for each other to breathe, rarely crowding the sound.
Recorded in October 2000 at PBS Studios in Westwood, Massachusetts, Brothers Together strips away everything but two musicians listening hard to each other. Hamid Drake on drums and Sabir Mateen on reeds—tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, and clarinet—occupy a sparse studio with no rhythm section, no harmonic anchor, nothing to hide behind. The setup forces absolute clarity: every breath Mateen takes, every cymbal Drake chooses, registers as a deliberate choice.
The album moves through extended improvisations where the two find their way together without a predetermined path. Mateen's tone varies dramatically—warm and vocal on tenor, pinched and piercing on alto, woody on clarinet—while Drake responds with restraint, often playing space rather than time. This is not frantic or showoff playing. Steve Loewy of AllMusic recognized the restraint, calling Mateen "a minor giant of the reeds" and noting that "he and Drake are an imposing pair." What impresses is the listening: how they wait for each other, how a drum roll answers a saxophone phrase, how silence becomes as important as sound.
This is a good entry point if you know Drake's work with David Murray or others but haven't heard Mateen lead. It presents him without filters—no strings, no overdubs, no studio tricks. Jay Collins, reviewing for One Final Notes, heard "passionate and convincing artists" making music "in an interactive and delightfully exposed manner." That exposure is the whole point. You hear exactly what these two brought to the room that day.
Who's playing
Hamid Drakepercussion
Sabir Mateenwind instruments
