Rashied Ali stood as a magnetic force for the musical environment around him. In his last decades, he sponsored rehearsal opportunities for young musicians, tightened up a neighborhood street-corner drum circles he happened to pass, and for years pulled promising young talents into his orbit. One unique group that Ali led at the 2002 Vision Festival with Frank Lowe he also took into studio-and that moment you hear on Sidewalks in Motion. This set features Ali and Lowe along with young musicians Jumaane Smith, Andrew Bemkey, and Joris Teepe. Ali edited and prepped for release by in the years after Lowe's death-but it was frozen on the runway at the time of Rashied's own untimely passing. The reborn Survival is honored to reanimate these sounds in 2025. Survival Records SR-553 is a single LP in an old-school tip-on jacket featuring photos and recollections from bassist Teepe. From 1972 until his death in 2009, Rashied Ali operated Survival Records as the primary record label for his work as a leader and other projects. Through that time, Ali documented every phase of his career as a musician.  Under the custodianship of the Ali family, Survival Records was revived in 2019 as a platform for improved, definitive reissues of the original LP releases as well as additional, hitherto unreleased performances from Ali's archive.  Survival releases have been optimized through the practices of Grammy-nominated veteran mastering engineer Joe Lizzi, the musical acuity of drummer George Schuller, and historical input from researcher Ben Young-overseen by the Estate of Rashied Ali.

Part of Rashied Ali's artistic strength involved turning improbable sound combinations into unchallenged masterpieces. After the pattern established by Interstellar Space and Duo Exchange, Ali stepped into a rather unlikely duet with violinist Leroy Jenkins for Swift are the Winds of Life. Five years with the Revolutionary Ensemble had helped establish Jenkins as a composer already; he designed all the pieces played in the 1975 studio duets with Ali. That record is issued on vinyl here for the first time in almost a half century. It's augmented by an informal phantom session in which Ali and Jenkins explore thoroughly other territories-standards, Coltrane's music, and two untitled, unbridled improvisations. Survival Records SR-512 is a deluxe 2-LP set in an old-school tip-on gatefold jacket that includes Stanley Crouch's original essay along with new liner notes and excerpts from an interview with Jenkins. From 1972 until his death in 2009, Rashied Ali operated Survival Records as the primary record label for his work as a leader and other projects. Through that time, Ali documented every phase of his career as a musician.  Under the custodianship of the Ali family, Survival Records was revived in 2019 as a platform for improved, definitive reissues of the original LP releases as well as additional, hitherto unreleased performances from Ali's archive.  Survival releases have been optimized through the practices of Grammy-nominated veteran mastering engineer Joe Lizzi, the musical acuity of drummer George Schuller, and historical input from researcher Ben Young-overseen by the Estate of Rashied Ali.

Duo Exchange was the flagship release of Survival Records. Percussionist Rashied Ali and saxophonist Frank Lowe were both in a hurry to ignite their careers as leaders, and this record lit the match. Survival Records was a joint venture between the duo, and the recording sessions done at Marzette Watts's studio were the maiden voyage of their partnership. They went in to capture the vehemence bursting forth nightly in the downtown lofts, and the results were furious, brutal, and poignant. With the release of this album in 1973, Ali and his family and Frank Lowe and his family all became executives and clerks helping to get the word out. And getting the records out-at loft shows and Village record haunts. The message of untamed tenor saxophone and Ali's drums should sound familiar: That's the combination that made Jazz history in Ali's 1967 duets with his then-employer, John Coltrane. What eventually came out as Interstellar Space is it's own pinnacle of the genre, but it's release was still a year off when Duo Exchange was issued to the public. Mixed and mastered from the original tapes, this expanded 2020 edition restores sections of the original record inexplicably excised from the CD release in the nineties, and expands on it with more than double the playing time of the original LP with fascinating outtake versions that rephrase the familiar tracks. 2xLP gatefold tip-on jacket.