Asher Gamedze - Turbulence And Pulse

Turbulence and Pulse Review by Thom Jurek

Asher Gamedze is a South African drummer, composer, and bandleader. Jazz is the genre that most directly claims him under its umbrella (even if he may disagree with that classification). His debut album, Dialectic Soul, and his work with Angel Bat Dawid & Tha Brothahood, place him firmly in the hard bop lineage of the '50s and early '60s, as well as a descendent of the jazz vanguard bloodline of South African jazz heroes the Blue Notes and the American vanguard of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and others.

The album title comes from poet and scholar Fred Moten, who described Gamedze's drumming in the internet forum Poesis as an "amazing interplay between turbulence and pulse. Pulse is supposed to regulate and also be regular, but the turbulence underneath it and on top of it, it's just extraordinary." He also noted that the tenet is a fundamental rhythmic element in Black music.