Hasaan Ibn Ali's 'Retrospect In Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings'

Pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali (1931-80) was a local Philadelphia player who had an impact on John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner and many others. He took the larger jazz world by storm in 1965 when The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan was released on Atlantic Records. The label was so impressed, they set him up to record his own album later that year, but it was never mixed or released. Thirteen years later, the tapes went up in flames in a New Jersey warehouse. While the recordings were thought lost forever, copies were believed to exist. And they did! Once located, the audio was restored and released earlier this year as Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album. It has become one of the most critically acclaimed jazz albums of the year. 

But Ibn Ali’s story has a side not documented on either of those previous releases. Alan Sukoenig and saxophonist David Shrier were students at the University of Pennsylvania in 1962, when Shrier told Sukoenig about an incredible pianist he had just heard at a club. It wasn’t long before the three became friends. Over the next three years, Shrier and Sukoenig captured their soon-to-be-legendary friend on tape, playing standards and some originals.  

The best of these tapes are now collected on Retrospect in Retirement of Delay: The Solo Recordings, due out November 19, 2021 from Omnivore Recordings on CD and Digital. Produced by the team of Sukoenig, Lewis Porter, and Grammy®-winner Cheryl Pawelski, the two-CD/Digital set also features restoration and mastering by Grammy®-winner Michael Graves, essays by Sukoenig, Porter, and pianist Matthew Shipp, and previously unseen photos taken by Sukoenig. A four-LP vinyl version is due in 2022.  

These 21 tracks reveal the intimate side of Hasaan Ibn Ali, with poetic, imaginative, even breathtaking performances that the world hasn’t known existed. And for the first time, hear the unique magic of the artist playing standards. 

According to co-producer Sukoenig: “This release by Omnivore is the fulfillment of a 55-year dream. Over the history of jazz, there have been many fine musicians, but far fewer wondrous ones. Hasaan Ibn Ali is in that class. I've been listening to these solo improvisations for over half a century. Not only haven't they paled, the best of them have, if anything, become even more impressive. That’s exceedingly rare for improvised music, created in the moment for the moment. I’m so happy that I can finally share Hasaan’s solo recordings with the world.”