Brooklyn based horn player Ahmed Abdullah’s first album in over 15 years sees his group Diaspora join forces with Francisco Mora Catlett’s AfroHORN ensemble. Called Jazz: A Music Of The Spirit/Out Of Sistas' Place, it features Abdullah on trumpet, flugelhorn and vocals, Monique Ngozi Nri on vocals, Alex Harding on baritone saxophone, Don Chapman on tenor saxophone, Bob Stewart on tuba, Donald Smith on piano, Radu Ben Judah on bass, and Francisco Mora Catlett, Ronnie Burrage and Roman Diaz on percussion. Abdullah answered a few questions about the project over email.

Tell me about Sistas' Place and your role there.

Sistas' Place has been in existence since 1995. It is a community coffee shop and institution that was created by the December 12th Movement, led by Viola Plummer. In 1997, when I finally decided to leave The Sun Ra Arkestra, which remains under the leadership of saxophonist Marshall Allen, I decided to write my memoirs of my 22 years experience with that organisation. The person I chose to help me write was a poet named Louis Reyes Rivera who had come recommended by Amiri Baraka (aka Leroi Jones). Sistas' Place had a mission from its inception of bringing quality performers back into the African American community as the location of the venue, Nostrand and Jefferson Ave, is in the heart of the Bedford-Stuyvesant community – nowadays a gentrified area, but back in 1995, a very solidly African American community. My work on my memoirs and my collaborations with poet Louis Reyes Rivera allowed Viola Plummer to take enough notice of me so that she asked me to be her music director (MD) because the original MD whose name is Carlos Garnett, a great saxophonist, had quit. As the MD my role was to book musicians to appear there in our Saturday nights concert series. When I was first asked to take on this responsibility, which is a labour of love, we were having concerts twice a month. By 1999, we were doing concerts every Saturday night and we had monetary support through an old friend who was an administrator at BET on Jazz. Over the years we have created an environment which musicians love to perform in, where predominantly African American audiences can hear great musicians at relatively reasonable prices. It's a real win/win where no matter how you are feeling on Saturday night before you come to Sistas' Place, when you leave, you are invigorated!

“Eternal Spiralling Spirit” revisits the track from your first release as a band leader: Life’s Force (1979). Why?

The song “Eternal Spiralling Spirit” was recorded in 1979 and yes, 40 years later in 2019, I decided to revisit it. One of the reasons for the updated version was because new material had been added to the composition since the original recording, namely Louis Reyes Rivera's poem A Place I've Never Been. As a result of working on my memoirs with Louis, not only did I become the music director of Sistas' Place, but I also began to work with Louis’s group called Jazzoets and he began working with my band Diaspora (an acronym meaning Dispersions of the Spirit of Ra). In Diaspora, we would perform “Eternal...” and “A Place...” and it really had an amazing effect on the audience. When we compared notes we found out that we had both created these compositions around the same time, obviously in different places. We thought it was something special, but we never recorded our particular collaboration. This recording was an opportunity to document the collaboration, even though Louis left the planet in 2012. My wife Monique Ngozi Nri, who is a poet and vocalist with Diaspora, recites the poem with a different passion and perspective that I am proud of and I think Louis would have appreciated it.

How has your relationship to the music of Sun Ra evolved over the years?

I started working with Sun Ra in 1975 and was a student of his music for three consecutive years until 1978. I rehearsed with him and performed with him regularly during that period. During the early years my gaze was outward. In other words, how could this relationship benefit me? I played gigs with him with the idea of developing my own career as an artist because that's what some of us do when we are young. The fortunate thing for me was that I was able to establish myself as a leader as a result of working with Sun Ra during that period. For ten years I worked with Sun Ra only when he worked in New York or I would do the odd gig out of town with the band. In 1988, after having four recordings under my name and the most recent one called The Solomonic Quintet, I had a dream. I never remember my dreams, but this one was vivid. In the dream I was told that Sun Ra was my mentor and that I needed to be back in his band full time. The dream made no sense considering that I was ready to really try to establish my band. Nevertheless with the encouragement of the great John Gilmore, I did rejoin the band full time from 1988 until Sun Ra left the planet in 1993 and continued to play with them even afterwards under Gilmore's leadership (who left in 1995) and Marshall Allen's leadership. Sun Ra has a composition called “Fate In A Pleasant Mood” and we chant: “You're just a puppet and a pawn in the hands of fate, but if you have faith then you can find fate in a pleasant mood, and you can change your destiny”. By going back to work in the Sun Ra band in 1988, I eventually met a writer, Monique Ngozi Nri, in London at Ronnie Scott's in September of 1991. She came to hear the band, wrote an article about me and six months later we were married. 27 years and one wonderful daughter (Tara, who is 18), later we are still married. I must have had the faith to find fate in a pleasant mood, because I surely did change my destiny!

Can you comment on how Sun Ra’s music is received today by new audiences?

There are actually many people playing Sun Ra's music today but the two entities that are directly connected to Sun Ra are The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen and my band Diaspora. I have been teaching a course at the New School For Jazz and Contemporary Music since 2002. The course deals with the music and philosophy of Sun Ra and in the 18 years that I have taught it I have interacted with hundreds of students on a very personal level in communicating to them the importance of my mentor. The Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen, who is 95, has a regular touring schedule and certainly people who hear the music coming from The Arkestra are hearing the true grit. Sun Ra said he was writing the music for the 21st century back in the 1970s when I first joined the band, so there it is.

Diaspora Meets AfroHORN's Jazz: A Music Of The Spirit/Out Of Sistas' Place is released on 27 March