Although the seventy-two year old drummer and bandleader is one of the veterans of jazz, he has never claimed mainstream status. At every point in his career, he has been a dedicated individualist and innovator. While growing up, he played with members of the avant-garde Art Ensemble of Chicago and studied African music in Ghana. He was a bandmate of free-jazz greats Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders, and has been described by critics as a "renaissance artist." He went through many top line-ups with artists such as Don Cherry, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, but his crowning project is the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, with whom he has recorded 15 albums and which he will present in Prague. The repertoire of original compositions is complemented by standards and a masterful rearrangement of Miles Davis' ‘All Blues’. El'Zabar is a masterful composer, drummer and percussionist and belongs to a rare breed of musicians whose aim is to harmonise with others, to listen to their bandmates and not to assert their ego.
El’Zabar was born Clifton Blackburn in 1953 in Chicago, his father was a drummer. In the late 1960s, he attended AACM classes, where trumpeter Phil Cohran of the Sun Ra Arkestra was a lecturer. In this environment, he also absorbed the influence of figures such as Lester Bowie, Anthony Braxton, Henry Threadgill. In the early 1970s he found himself in Paris, where he was supposed to study with the famous mime Marcel Marceau, but instead decided to go to Ghana to study music. In 1974, he formed the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble with a four-piece band, fusing American jazz with its African roots. He was inspired to change his name by saxophonist Fred Walker. He chose the stage name Derf Reklaw (Fred Walker backwards), which caught the young Clifton Blackburn’s attention. “Notfilc Nrubkcalb – that won’t work,” he decided. “My mother’s maiden name is El’Zabar, and my great-uncle is Kahil. That was a better choice.
Since 2001 he has worked with the free association JUBA Collective, connecting avant-garde jazz with house and hip-hop. In 2022, he was nominated for a Grammy for his album A Time For Healing, recorded with his quartet. His latest recording, Open Me To A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit is one of his most successful ever. In addition, El’Zabar holds the title of Sir, knighted by the General Council of France for his global contributions to the arts.
