Creative Arts Ensemble

2412 South Western Avenue, Los Angeles. A mansion the Arkestra members had taken over for communal living. They called it the Great House. In the late 1970s, Michael Session - the Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra's tenorist - brought a young pianist named Kaeef Ruzadun Ali through the front door. "When I walked in there," Kaeef recalled, "it was like this whole rush came over me, just from going in the front door. It was like a very, very warm feeling of love. I went and I came out with 'Flashback of Time', and that was my first arrangement."

That composition would eventually appear on One Step Out, but first it entered the Arkestra's repertoire. Kaeef became a significant contributor to the collective's songbook - his piece "New Horizon" would later be recorded by Horace Tapscott for The Tapscott Sessions Vol. 6. But Kaeef wanted something more. Inspired by Tapscott's model and by the Art Ensemble of Chicago, he approached his mentor: "I would like to form a group that would be an extension of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra."

The Creative Arts Ensemble became the only large ensemble to emerge directly from PAPA. For their 1981 debut on Nimbus West, Kaeef assembled a formidable lineup of Arkestra regulars and Los Angeles veterans: Gary Bias on alto and soprano saxophones (fresh from his own Nimbus West solo album), Dadesi Komolafe on flute, Woody "Sonship" Theus on drums and percussion, with Henry "The Skipper" Franklin anchoring the bass and George Bohannon on trombone. Wilbert Helmsley (tenor), Jeff Clayton (baritone), and Al White (trumpet) round out the horns. The sanctified vocals come from Kaeef's sister, Shaleethia B.J. Crowley, who delivers in a classic jazz style reminiscent of the great Strata-East vocalists - knowing precisely when to step back and let the solos breathe.

Four compositions, all by Ruzadun. The title track opens with propulsive rhythm, Crowley's voice, Bohannon's stentorian trombone, and those piano swells so characteristic of this music. "Flashback Of Time" - the piece Kaeef wrote on his first visit to the Great House - features a swirling saxophone solo giving way to a thrilling flute workout from Komolafe, then travels through features for piano and drums before reaching its ecstatic climax. Franklin does his wonderfully elastic thing on the epic "All Praises Due." The album closes with "Stars In Lightyear Time," wild and Ra-ish, brimming on the edge of cosmic chaos.

The early 1980s weren't friendly to jazz musicians unwilling to bend toward fusion or smooth jazz. Kaeef stayed committed to his vision. Two years later came New Horizon. Then silence until 1998. Then he vanished from the recording world entirely.

This is ESSENTIAL spiritual jazz from the Los Angeles underground.