Abdul-Malik was an American jazz double bassist and oud player, and one of the pioneers who combined jazz with the music of the SWANA region. He played with John Coltrane, Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk. 

The quartet أحمد [Ahmed] is Pat Thomas (piano), Antonin Gerbal (drums), Joel Grip (double bass) and Seymour Wright (alto saxophone). The four exhume, reinhabit and repurpose the now-overlooked documents and fragmentary plans of Abdul-Malik’s mid-20th-century synthetic vision, bringing a new jazz imagination for the 21st century to light. Their electrifying music is built on heavy rhythms, repetition and syncopation, and is deeply rooted in jazz and in the forgotten corners of its history. Experiencing أحمد [Ahmed] live is something special: only in a live setting can you fully feel the depth and physicality that come from the ecstatic core of their music.