Sidewalks In Motion

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 neighborhood street-corner drum circles he happened to pass, and for years would pull promising young talents into his orbit. One unique group that Ali led at the 2002 Vision Festival in NYC, along with with Frank Lowe, he also took into the studio—and the moment you hear on Sidewalks in Motion features Ali and Lowe along with young musicians Jumaane Smith (trumpet), Andrew Bemkey on piano, and bassist Joris Teepe. In the years after Lowe’s death Ali selected the best takes, and mixed and mastered for release, but the material remained on the shelf, frozen on the runway at the time of Rashied’s own untimely passing. The reborn Survival Records 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 Joris 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 for 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 a sense of stillness – a peace found in unison.