Kidd Jordan and Hamid Drake to record at Piety Street

Terrific news about two of our greatest improvisors, drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist Kidd Jordan, as they plan to record at Piety Street in New Orleans. Drake is also in town to perform Nov. 19 at the art installation at 1027 Piety Street, "The Music Box," put together by local artists under the auspices of New Orleans Airlift. Here's a release about the recording I received from a great supporter of improvisors and innovators in the music world, Benjamin Lyons:

NEW ORLEANS, LA (October 18, 2011) – Valid Records announces today it will record an historic duet concert by saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan and drummer Hamid Drake at Piety Street Recording Sunday, November 20, 2011 at 8 pm. Jordan, one of the least recorded jazz musicians of his global stature, has not made a studio recording in New Orleans since the mid 1980’s. This recording will reunite him with his frequent collaborator Hamid Drake for their first recording since 2005’s award-winning trio recording PALM OF SOUL (Aum Fidelity.)

Edward “Kidd” Jordan's multi-faceted legacy is among of the most influential and enduring in the history of improvised music. An integral part of the seminal musical tapestry of New Orleans, he is the patriarch of one of the city's most respected musical families and his parallel careers as a performer and educator span the past six decades. Now 76, he has worked most of his life outside the mainstream spotlight, tirelessly sustaining the jazz continuum through both his teaching and his cutting edge performances all around the globe with like-minded improvisers.
Hamid Drake is widely regarded as the leading drummer in improvised music. His musical education began in Chicago under the tutelage of saxophonist Fred Anderson and extended well beyond the world of jazz through associations with the Mandingo Griot Society, Alan Rudolph, Don Cherry, and many of the major figures in reggae. Drake brings North and West African, Caribbean, and funk impulses to the creation of freely improvised music with a wide range of world jazz figures such as David Murray, Peter Brötzmann, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Bill Laswell, Herbie Hancock, William Parker, and Ken Vandermark. He has been recorded on close to 200 cds and is in constant worldwide demand as a concert performer.