Jazz Supreme - Spiritual Love Is Everywhere

barabara sounds sez:  

The fourth in the Jazz Supreme series, and it follows pretty closely the template of the previous volume, featuring a succession of heavy-hitting tracks (mostly) from that golden age of 70s spiritual jazz, spiced with a few tasty numbers from the early 60s, and even before that. It kicks off — obviously and appropriately — with Pharoah and barely lets up, with Mike Westbrook and Michael Garrick again added to the mix, closing with the wonderful Bill Evans' Peace Piece.

And, just like last time around, there are also a couple of clunkers thrown in — or at least non-sequiturs. Compiler Toru Hashimoto must have had a serious infatuation with Elliott Smith (or perhaps the record company was leaning on him hard) but he (Smith) just doesn't belong in this company. And why Hashimoto picked just about the one throwaway track from Shepp's entire immense back catalog — personally I find Cal Massey's five-year-old daughter's warbling quite unlistenable — when there are so many other possibilities is hard to understand.

But even so, even so, even so… it's not a bad comp at all. And although jazz heads will know 'em all, it's still nice to hear your old favorites spliced in a new sequence. Spiritual Love IS everywhere, especially if you're taking it with you in your iPod…

trax: 

01. Pharoah Sanders – Love Is Everywhere
02. Mike Westbrook Concert Band – Love Song No.2

03. Elliott Smith – Waltz #2 (XO)

04. Michael White – The Blessing Song

05. Gary Bartz NTU Troop – I've Known Rivers

06. Stanley Clarke – Unexpected Days 

07. The Michael Garrick Trio – First Born  
08. Dorothy Ashby – Come Live With Me 

09. Ramsey Lewis – Les Fleur 

10. Archie Shepp – Quiet Dawn

11. Yusef Lateef – Brother John

12. Prince Lasha Quintet – Congo Call

13. Paul Gonsalves Quartet – Boom-Jackie-Boom-Chick

14. Bill Evans – Peace Piece