A Song For Friday: Jamaaladeen Tacuma
A look as his roots inspires a new single from the bass master and some friends
As a huge Ornette Coleman fan in high school, I quickly dedicated myself to learning to say the name “Jamaaladeen Tacuma,” with confidence, a reference to the dazzling, inventive electric bassist who animated the polyrhythms of the composer’s Harmolodic visions. On albums like Body Meta, Of Human Feeling, and In All Languages, Tacuma’s dry sound and dexterity became a favored through-line to lead me into these extraordinarily dense and joyful records. Listen to how he kicks off Sleep Talk, the first song on Of Human Feelings, recorded in 1979 and released in 1982, with a wry and gestural pattern that almost seems to be a commentary on what’s to come.
It has recently dawned on me that the man is still active and releasing new music at a steady clip on his own Jam All label. In recent years, he’s put out collaborations with Mary Halvorson, David Murray, and just last month, Odeon Pope. To The Lighthouse is very much an extension of Tacuma’s work with Coleman: funky, melodic, and played by master musicians - including drummer G. Calvin Weston, who also played with Coleman - who thread the needle between freedom and precision.
But just today he released something that sounds quite different: The Hillville Jam, a lighthearted quasi-rap/jazz poetry groove with YZ, Hollywood Jones, and Paul Yams delivering the word on Whiteville, NC, where “when you go visit you don’t want to leave.” With Kris Kruda’s guitars providing both chicken-scratch rhythm and bluesy riffing and soloing, Tacuma lays back and just lets the funk flow. The bonus beats at the end are both a callback to hip hop’s early days and a fresh take on the future.
I’ll let Tacuma himself have the last word in this excerpt from the email he sent out today:
“To fulfill your new music cravings and to help kick off “Black History Month” I am releasing a single on Bandcamp Friday for only a buck that’s right the buck stops here and if most of my followers buy the $1 single it will help me finish up production on the next album release .
Jamaaladeen Tacuma’s The HillVille Jam is dedicated to my mother Mazzie-Bell Hill’s family in Whiteville NC.”
If you play this delightful song on repeat like I just did, consider doing what he says and spending a buck to fuel his further efforts. With Jamaaladeen Tacuma - a true renaissance man - there’s always something exciting to come.
Is this your first time hearing the name Jamaaladeen Tacuma? Don’t thank me later, leave a comment now.
From the archives:
Ornette and Self-Recognition