About Sounds of the Circle

Sounds of the Circle is a composing, performance, mentoring and archival project that translates for today’s audiences the propulsive musical ideas and strategies that inspired Philadelphia jazz master Odean Pope when he was coming of musical age in North Philadelphia in the 1940s to early 1970s——ideas and strategies that inspire Odean to this day, and that provide enduring fuel for Philadelphia’s singular and evolving jazz legacy.

Odean was 10 years old when his parents moved the family from Ninety-Six, South Carolina to North Philadelphia. Inspired by singing in the Baptist church and by the sounds of the church choirs his mother directed, Odean was already playing the saxophone when he moved north from South Carolina’s low-country. But it was his associations and relationships with young jazz explorers in his North Philly neighborhood that super-charged his musical imagination and launched him on a long and accomplished career in African American experimental and improvised music.

Chief among the cadre of jazz innovators who challenged, encouraged and mentored Odean was Hasaan Ibn Ali (1931-1980), an intense and risk-taking composer, improviser, and pianist who died well before he began to get recognition for his genius. One day while Odean was practicing in his family’s living room, Hasaan walked around the corner and tapped on the front window to invite Odean to come to his parent’s house the following day for some musical exchange. That was the beginning of a close friendship and artistic relationship that had profound and enduring impact on Odean’s aesthetic and imagination.

Odean and Hasaan were in community with other Philly-bred jazz innovators, including John Coltrane, Jymie Merritt, Shirley Scott, Reggie Workman, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, and Benny Golson, as well as less familiar names. They rehearsed and jammed with one another, and galvanized each other’s ideas and techniques, in home basements and living rooms, and in local clubs and after-hours joints in North Philadelphia in the mid-20th Century. This project spotlights those relationships and environments, and the musical ideas they generated. It translates those inspirations into new compositions and relational configurations, including a premier concert at a long-standing North Philly jazz club, community workshops, master classes, and a professional learning community of accomplished local jazz players.