Artist: Rashid Ali

Rashied Ali, (July 1, 1933 – August 12, 2009) born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde drummer who was best known for performing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life. 

Ali moved to New York in 1963 and worked in groups with Bill Dixon and Paul Bley. He was scheduled to be the second drummer alongside Elvin Jones on John Coltrane's free jazz album Ascension, but he dropped out just before the recording was to take place.  Coltrane did not replace him and settled for one drummer. Ali recorded with Coltrane beginning in 1965 on the album Meditations. 

Among his credits are the last recorded work by Coltrane (The Olatunji Concert) and Interstellar Space, an album of duets recorded earlier in 1967. Ali "became important in stimulating the most avant-garde kinds of jazz activities," playing what Coltrane described as "multi-directional rhythms". After Coltrane's death, Ali performed with his widow, pianist Alice Coltrane. During the early 1970s, he ran Ali's Alley, a loft club in New York City, and founded his own label, Survival Records. 

During the 1980s, he was member of Phalanx, a group with guitarist James Blood Ulmer, tenor saxophonist George Adams, and bassist Sirone. 

In 1985, Ali performed with the band There Goes the Neighborhood with Jaco Pastorius, Jorma Kaukonen, Doug McClean, Whitie Melvin, and Ben Prevo. From 1997 to 2003 he played extensively with Tisziji Munoz in a group that usually included Pharoah Sanders.