The Pyramids - 1976 - Birth Speed Merging

The Pyramids 

1976 

Birth Speed Merging

01. Birth / Speed / Merging Suite

    Part 1. Aomawa 5:29

    Part 2. Birth / Speed / Merging 7:40

    Part 3. Reaffirmation 7:33

02. Jamaican Carnival 6:39

03. Black Man And Woman Of The Nile 16:22

Idris Ackamoor aka Bruce Baker - (alto & soprano sax, percussion, vocals)

Margo Ackamoor - (flute, piccolo, percussion)

Kwame Kimathi Asante - (bass guitar, ugandan harp, ethiopian drum, percussion)

Heshima - (acoustic bass)

Augusta Lee Collins - (drums, talking drum, percussion)

Kenneth Nash - (congas, bongos, vocals)

Guest Artist:

Mcheza Ngoma - (vocals, steel drums, percussion)

Recorded at His Master's Wheels Studio in November, 1975.

Yet another great lost black group of the '70s, the Pyramids grabbed what the Art Ensemble was dealing and put a California twist on it. The result is something thoroughly enjoyable and soaked with enough musicianship and Eastern influence to claim a small corner of R&B as their own. This is good stuff, and if you're into the groove Archie Shepp or Pharoah Sanders put down in the '70s, this could well be something you'll dig. Those who've tired of the whole large-ensemble funk thing and want a little harder edge will probably groove to this too.

Birth/Speed/Merging, originally released in 1976, represents the San Francisco Bay Area era of the band. Relocating from Yellow Springs, Ohio in 1974, The Pyramids quickly met other musicians in the thriving San Francisco Bay Area music scene. "The Pyramids, a criminally under-recognised spiritual jazz collective, were birthed at the dawn of the 1970s in Ohio, and included saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, flautist Margo Simmons, bassist Kimathi Asante and drummer Donald Robinson. Delving deep into a world of pan-African rhythms and melodies, they combined them in novel ways with the psychedelic modal jazz simmering in America at the time. The group released three private-press records in the US throughout the 70s, highly regarded by collectors, which consistently fetched incredibly large sums of money."