Ishmael Reed - The Hands of Grace

Ishmael Reed
The Hands of Grace
Reading Group/All Night Flight
USA/UK, 2022/2026
LP

Perhaps it’s only with the accretion of time and tradition that the notion of “amateur jazz” has come to seem like something of an oxymoron. Beneath all the Juilliard-abetted virtuosity, beneath the proliferating arms race of fire music always heading further “out,” there’s a spirit of jazz that remains timeless and domestic. The bluesy syntax has something to do with it, to be sure, the fundamental harmonies. But even more, a sensibility.

Whatever that sensibility is, the American writer Ishmael Reed has it. That’s not to diminish his considerable abilities on the piano, which—especially for the fifth-best thing he’s known for—are beyond proficient. But what makes this music special is its spirit.

First released on CD by the Reading Group label in 2022, and recently reissued on vinyl in collaboration with All Night Flight, The Hands of Grace centers around music that Reed composed for his play The Slave Who Loved Caviar, about the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. With support from a small ensemble including Reed’s wife, Carla Blank, on violin and Roger Glenn on flute, Reed puts forth a vision of a quiet home jazz—patient, calloused, spacious, and communal. A very special record that I expect to keep in rotation just about forever.

FROM THE LABEL:

Touching homebuilt compositions from celebrated American novelist, playwright and poet Ishmael Reed, channelling a long life immersed in jazz culture.  A joint in-house production from ANF and NYC-based label Reading Group.

You’re never too old to learn something new.  Reed credits bebop with keeping him and his friends out of reform school because they were too busy listening to records at each other’s houses to get into trouble.  Finding fame as a distinguished writer, he found his way back to music circuitously, eventually taking the plunge at aged 60 to study jazz piano.  Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006 he hastily assembled a quintet to fulfil a lifelong ambition of recording an album. He made the record but thankfully he didn’t succumb to his illness   Cash-strapped during COVID, he became a composer to save on money for his own plays, enlisting his daughter Tennessee as the narrator.  

These humble origins and a genuine love (and natural talent) for music are what underpins The Hands Of Grace.  Consisting of works written for Reed’s play ‘The Slave Who Loved Caviar’ alongside new original compositions, it brings in close friends and family to accompany his casual, unvarnished playing style that’s so genuinely heartfelt it feels as if you could be sat alongside them in their living room.  The music carries a lived-in simplicity yet it also holds something ambiguous that draws it away from the predictable. Music papers rustle, a living room chair is dragged up to the keys whilst Reed’s wife Carla contributes violin and daughter Tennessee recites her poetry on standout ‘How High The Moon’.  This is a poignant family affair with no-one left out, ending on a touching tribute and voicemail from their late daughter Timothy.  

Ever since it first appeared on CD The Hands Of Grace has become a staple. A record to return to, a uniquely personal tribute, a document of working method, a lifelong passion finally coming to fruition