Jazz Supreme - Spiritual Waltz-A-Nova

barabara sounds sez:  

More supremely jazzy sounds from this great series. This was actually the very first of the excellent Jazz Supreme comps, and it sets the tone perfectly. A brilliant blend of classic and club, drawing from the back catalogs of Strata-East, Black Jazz, Tribe and interspersing them with righteous sounds from more recent times. 

Among my favorites: Abdul Rahim Ibrahim (the former Doug Carn); Dee Dee Bridgewater; and Charles Greenlee (with Archie Shepp of course). And I'm sure I'm not the only person to discover the Pete Jolly Trio through this album. 

trax:
01. John Hicks – After the morning 
02. The Ted Vining Trio – Impressions
03. Dee Dee Bridgewater – Little B's poem
04. S.O.L.A.R. – Faith for my mind
05. Hipnosis – Black Forest stomp
06. Two Banks Of Four – One day
07. The Pete Jolly Trio – My favorite things
08. Abdul Rahim Ibrahim – Tropic sons
09. Haki R. Madhubuti And Nation – Children
10. Pharoah Sanders – Moments notice
11. Kindred Spirits Ensemble – Naima
12. Charles Greenlee – Steam
13. The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe – Coltrane
14. Doug Hammond – Moves
15. Joe Bonner – Soft breezes

sleep walker - the voyage

barabara sounds sez:

There was one more track that Pharoah Sanders laid down on that same 2003 visit to Tokyo when he recorded The Creator Has A Master Plan. He sat in as a guest with the hot club-jazz combo Sleep Walker. It came out as a single in 2004, and later became the title track of their next album, The Voyage (not released till 2006). Anyway, that's my inspiration for posting it here and now

–

but it's certainly not the only reason. The whole album grooves and soars just beautifully, with track 6, Kaze (= 'Wind') another stand-out. Don't believe me, ask Dusty...

dusty sez:

Brilliant brilliant work by Sleep Walker – a soaring, soulful album of spiritual jazz – one that we'd rank right up there with our favorites from the era of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders on Impulse Records! The vibe here is incredible – jazz played live on tenor, soprano sax, piano, bass, and drums – spinning out in modal lines that groove tremendously, but not with any tricks or gimmicks that get in the way of genuine jazz expression. Sleep Walker are easily one of the deepest and most talented combos of the current club jazz scene – and their music never resorts to fake samples or heavy-handed rhythms to move the tunes along – just glows in the genius of its own bright light, spreading forth in waves of soul and sound that are tremendous from the first note of the album to the last!

personnel:

中村 雅人

Nakamura

Masato

sax;

吉澤 はじめ Yoshizawa Hajime piano; 杉本 智和 Sugimoto Tomokazu bass; 藤井 伸昭 Fujii Nobuaki d

rums.

tracks

Ai-No-Tabi; Into The Sun; The Southern Cross; Afloat; Lost in Blue; Kaze; Reminiscence; The Voyage

trivia:

• As UK friends may know, Sleepwalker played alongside Pharoah at the Jazz Cafe in London in late 2003. He came back to Japan again in 2006 and played with them at the outdoor Metamorphose festival.

• There's an interesting fragment of a beyondjazz interview with Okino Shinya (Kyoto Jazz Massive; produced Sleepwalker) on angelfire's Pharoah discography:

When we knew Pharoah was coming to Japan, we offered this recording to his management. But we got the answer (ok) 4 days before the day for recording. Sleep Walker made a song for this recording during this 4 days. Every member stayed at Hajime's house. When recording, Pharoah asked us the image of this song. Hajime answered that this image is the feeling from father and children met again after long time no seeing. So we decided to call this song "Chichi to ko" (it means "Father and children" in English). When Masa played tenor sax, Pharoah shouted "Masa"! It was very impressing. And when Pharoah started his solo, I couldn't stop crying. It was so beautiful! Our dreams came true..."

• And check out this clip (posted by tokyojazznotes) of Pharoah with Sleepwalker from 2006 (also ft. Bembe Segue and Yukimi Nagano). It's hard to actually hear the sax at all, what with all the noise from the floor every time he steps up to play, but it's a great nugget... [btw the track is You've Got To Have Freedom]

The Voyage was first posted in the blogosphere by Bacoso on the ever-essential Orgy in Rhythm – and it's still up in the archives there. But just in case anyone's slept [or should that be sleepwalked?] on it, here it is again (with full scans of that modern classic album art...)

Pharoah Sanders Quartet - The Creator Has A Master Plan

barabara sounds sez:

Late-period Pharoah, and by this time (2003) he has mellowed substantially. The fire is muted but, like all the great players, he still has his tone and his edge.

Yes, much of the album is located well in the jazz centerfield, focusing mostly on down-tempo ballads. And yes the album includes 6 minutes of outright dross that you should program out of your playlist and your life for ever (look at the track listing and you know already which one I mean). But there are also some fine moments of pure Pharoah, especially on the three longest tracks.

Plus there's a reason why this album is memorable – to me, at least. The last time I saw him play live was with on this same visit to Tokyo that he laid down these sides. With these same fine musicians in his group. In a small club, and from very close up. He's been back a couple of times since then (I missed the gigs) but who knows, I may never have that chance again...

dusty sez:

A nice mix of the two sides of Pharoah Sanders – the spiritual jazz elements first developed in his Coltrane years, and some of the more straight-styled blowing he explored in later years! The album's got a bit more of the latter than the former – despite the title – but it still is a beautiful demonstration of the deep, deep soul found in Sanders' tenor – still a tremendously expressive instrument after all these years!

personnel:

Pharoah Sanders tenor sax; William Henderson piano; Ira Coleman bass; Joe Farnsworth drums

tracks:

Want To Talk About You; Moon Rays; Tokyo Blues; Greatest Love Of All; The Creator Has A Master Plan; Welcome; Tina; It's Easy To Remember

recorded April 23, 2003 at Wonder Station, Tokyo.

Universal Sounds of America

barabara sounds sez:

Sun Ra, Steve Reid, the Tribe sound, Art Ensemble of Chicago... names that need little introduction these days. But for quite a lot of us, this was the album that turned us on to all those wild and beautiful sounds that emerged in the early '70s. Back in the day, this was known as avant guard. I join those who prefer to just call it space jazz.

amg (thom jurek) sez:

Universal Sounds of America is one of the early compilations for Great Britain's Soul Jazz label that made a case for a separate imprint that later became Universal Sound. Artists like Pharoah Sanders, drummer Steve Reid and the Master Brotherhood, Byron Morris & Unity Ensemble, David Durrah, New Life Trio, Marcus Belgrave, and last but not least, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra all on the track listing for this set focus, one way or another, on "space being the place." Numerous cuts here employ the word "space" in their titles and one references it directly… While the focus here is on the diversity of, to borrow a term from the AEC, "Great Black Music Ancient to the Future," it is deeply rooted in '70s out jazz, with only Belgrave and Morris providing deeper, wider visions. Morris' nearly twelve-and-a-half minute "Kitty Bey" replies on modal jazz and Latin rhythms to get his killer track across. Likewise, Sanders uses an electric piano to position himself in space on the gorgeous "Astral Traveling," and Belgrave takes nearly ten with his "Space Odyssey," that reflects on funk, electronic abstraction and Detroit soul-jazz to get his rather elegant point across. The rest is all beautifully played and constructed, but the sheer diversity of the sequencing -- though intentionally constructed in this way -- can be a bit much. Still, there isn't anything here not to recommend.