“Sudan” (PDF) from the Idris Muhammad album, House of the Rising Sun

The early sketches of jazz fusion can be attributed to the pairing of Miles Davis and Bill Evans who presented classical orchestrations of folk melodies through the jazz tradition. But when the trumpeter ventured away from tradition in the 1970’s toward electronic music, the academic musicians coming of age in New York City continued to explore the influence of world music through modern jazz. An example of this, as documented by historians Doug Payne and Arnaldo DeSouteiro, is the first tune recorded for House of the Rising Sun, “Sudan” that put together trumpeter and arranger Tom Harrell with the soul jazz drummer Idris Muhammad.

Among the session musicians was Spanish Harlem trombonist Barry Rogers, whose Latin influence complimented the Eastern African sentiment of Harrell’s melodies. The musical lineage of New York City in the late-Twentieth century can be traced through the Caribbean, Central and South America, Western Africa and Europe, the Medaterranian, the Sahara, all the way back to the fertile crescent of civilization. The musical connection is primarily the Phrygian mode, more specifically the dominant Phrygian scale, that utilizes Eastern-influenced scale intervals within a minor key. On this recording, Rogers’ use of the B dominant Phrygian scale, or in the modern jazz context - the “five of five” in an E minor ii-V7 progression, along with some Latin flare involving syncopated triplet rhythms and screaming-high brass tones.

Recommended reading: Sounding Salsa: Performing Latin Music in New York City by Chris Washburne. Published by Temple University Press