Doug Carn - 1974 - Adam's Apple

Doug Carn

1974

Adam's Apple

01. Chant 4:59
02. Higher Ground 5:03
03. Sweet Season 3:56
04. Sanctuary 7:31
05. Mighty Mighty 5:59
06. The Messenger 4:12
07. Adam's Apple 3:32
08. To A Wild Rose 3:34
09. Western Sunrise 5:03

Acoustic Bass – Gerald Brown
Bass [Fender] – Darrel Clayborn
Congas, Bongos, Percussion – Big Black
Drums – Harold Mason
Guitar – Calvin Keys, Nathan Page
Leader, Keyboards, Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Synthesizer [Moog] – Doug Carn
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Ronnie Laws
Trombone – Thurman Green
Vocals – Doug Carn, John Conner, Joyce Greene

The last album in a legendary run of music from keyboardist Doug Carn – his final album for the Black Jazz label, and a set that pushes even farther than his previous efforts! Jean Carn isn't in the group this time around, but the set does feature a totally great twin-vocal approach – with singing by Joyce Green and John Conner, blending their voices together in a style that's right up there with the most righteous 70s jazz experiments by Horace Silver or Billy Gault! This vocal balance really brings a new sort of power to Carn's music – furthering the righteous spirit of earlier years with a hell of a lot of energy – also aided by great instrumental work from Ronnie Laws on tenor and soprano sax, Thurman Green on trombone, Calvin Keys and Nathan Page on guitars, and Big Black on percussion. 

Doug Carn’s fourth and final album for Black Jazz ‘Adams Apple’ from 1974 is a much funkier and upbeat record. It still retains the deep spiritual jazz theme but is expressed more joyously with ‘Chant’, ‘Higher Ground’ and ‘Sweet Season’ being the most uptempo tracks. His organ playing is more evident throughout especially on the instrumental ‘The Messenger’.

There is an early Earth Wind and Fire influence (he played with them) and a frantic cover of ‘Mighty Mighty’. ‘Western Sunrise’ is a beautiful track to close the set on. Joyce Greene and John Conner replace Jean as the vocalist, and the band includes Ronnie Laws, Calvin Keys and Big Black.

Doug Carn - 1973 - Revelation

Doug Carn

1973

Revelation

01. God Is One 1:42
02. Power And Glory 7:57
03. Revelation 3:43
04. Naima 4:28
05. Fatherhood 4:15
06. Contemplation 4:08
07. Feel Free 9:20
08. Time Is Running Out 3:55
09. Jihad 7:24

Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Rene McClean
Bass – Walter Booker
Drums – Ira Williams
Guitar – Nathan Page
Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Synthesizer – Doug Carn
Trumpet [Bass] – Earl McIntyre
Trumpet, Horn [Alto] – Olu Dara
Vocals – Jean Carn, Olu Dara, Rene McClean

The Black Jazz recordings of Doug Carn are always a revelation – some of the most powerful, progressive work on the American underground of the early 70s – music that got Carn into way more record collections than you might expect! The sound here is a perfect summation of Doug's early genius – his own work on organ and keyboards, never overdone and mixed perfectly with a righteous array of acoustic sounds from Rene McLean on alto and tenor and Olu Dara on trumpet – both players who soar to the skies on waves of energy begun by Carn! Wife Jean Carn sings on a number of tracks – with this heavenly style that's mighty righteous – every bit as soulful as her later work at Philly International, but in a very different way.

In the 1960's there began what can only be described as a spiritual revolution among jazz musicians. Spearheaded by the likes of Coltrane, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Saunders, etc. jazz became a means for social change and a vehicle for spiritual elightenment.

"Revelation" by Doug Carn was a lost masterpiece of this era. Apart from the top rate songwriting and musicianship, this recording demonstrates and evokes in the listener a joy and an elevation of the spirit and heart that is sadly lacking on most music.

Jazz musicians and audiences would do well to remember that this music means a triumph of the spirit and dignity of the human being over opression and despair. This cannot be accomplished by that trumpet player whose docility is being exploited by that large classical music venue in New York City; or the hoards of bebop nazis who think that the development of jazz ended in 1964.

Dawoud Kringle

Doug Carn - 1972 - Spirit of the New Land

Doug Carn

1972

Spirit of the New Land

01. Dwell Like A Ghost 1:35
02. My Spirit 10:00
03. Arise And Shine 9:40
04. Blue In Green 5:24
05. Trance Dance 8:39
06. Search For The New Land 11:56
07. New Moon 5:25

Drums – Al Mouzon
Flugelhorn – Charles Tolliver
Leader, Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Lyrics By – Doug Carn
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet, Flute, Flute [Reed] – George Harper
Trombone – Garnett Brown
Tuba – Earl McIntyre
Vocals – Jean Carne

Pianist Doug Carn's second BJ record, Spirit of the New Land, poignantly reflected the state of affairs in black America through explicit lyrics sung by his wife Jean and through the expert musicians' responses to life-altering societal developments in a hopeful time when the slogan Black Power carried real meaningi The album s flush with riveting modern jazz, which often leans toward the spiritually inclined music of the John Coltrane Quartet on the classic album My Favorite Things. With George Harper's flute in gracious agreement, Jean Carn draws beauty out of the Miles Davis ballad "Blue in Green.

First known to the Jazz world as the man who made lyric adaptations for famous instrumental Jazz tunes (such as John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, or Horace Silver's _Peace_; in fact, this album features a vocal version of the Miles Davis classic, Blue in Green), Doug Carn released several albums under his own name in the early seventies on the Black Jazz Records label, one of which is Spirit of the New Land. 

Carn plays Jazz organ and the Fender-Rhodes e-piano, and also acoustic piano in a rather McCoy-Tyner-ish way. The record is a document of the lively Jazz scene in the US in the early seventies. The revolutionary developments from the sixties found their way into a lot of the albums recorded then. Think of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi albums, or Norman Connor's early albums for Buddha Records, and you get an idea of the kind of Jazz on this record. It's part post-Hard Bop, part Free Jazz, part the expression of a universal concern articulately manifested in the Civil rights movement. Those who were seriously involved were searching for new ways of expression. Thus, as far as the aspects of awareness were concerned, Jazz and Soul music were tangent to each other. Jean Carn, Doug's wife, who would have a solo career as a Soul singer later in the seventies, here sings in an uncompromising Jazz environment. Her vocal contributions are more part of the tunes' arrangements rather than the more familiar way where a singer is backed by a band. This is serious music featuring interesting arrangements and solo contributions from these musicians: Doug Carn, keyboards; Jean Carn, vocals; George Harper, soprano sax. , bass clarinet, flute; Charles Tolliver, flugelhorn; Garnett Brown, trombone, Earl Mc Intire, tuba; Henry Franklin, bass; Alphonze Mouzon, drums.

Doug Carn - 1971 - Infant Eyes

Doug Carn

1971

Infant Eyes

01. Welcome 1:15
02. Little B's Poem 3:50
03. Moon Child 7:56
04. Infant Eyes 9:50
05. Passion Dance 5:58
06. Acknowledgement 8:45
07. Peace 4:30

Bass – Henry Franklin
Drums – Michael Carvin
Piano, Electric Piano, Organ – Doug Carn
Tenor Saxophone, Flute – George Harper
Trombone, Valve Trombone – Al Hall, Jr.
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Bob Frazier
Vocals – Jean Carn

Although he recorded a 1969 album in a trio setting for Savoy, Doug Carn is of course most famous for his relationship with the independent Black Jazz label. His albums on that imprint may be single-handedly responsible for the label’s canonical status in Afrocentric spiritual jazz. They are remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the presence of innovative lyrics sung by his then-wife Jean Carn, who not unlike Abbey Lincoln used her voice as part of the ensemble arrangements rather than as a vocalist with a backup band. The communal family vibe is accentuated by the beautiful album cover photography and the opening tune Little B’s Poem; together with the cover photo, I feel like I knew their daughter and wonder where she is now and how she feels about all the musical attention today. While the following albums from the Doug and Jean Carn would push further with original material, this first album is noteworthy for it’s reworking of compositions by jazz heavyweights that they admired – Bobby Hutcherson, Horace Silver, Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, and Wayne Shorter. In particular, adding lyrics to that material and making the compositions into something else is the big achievement here.

The CD pressing from 1997 sounds okay but the second side (of the original LP) suffers from nasty wow and flutter from whatever source tape they used. This was the first appearance of this album on CD and I am not sure if there has been any other remastered versions since, but I kind of doubt it. In fact last year somebody claiming to have a set of Black Jazz master tapes was selling the whole bundle on Craig’s List for a hefty sum; the auction was dubious as they were comprised of 1/2? reels, which even for a studio on a budget in the early 70s would have been a substandard format, and claimed to come with full reproduction rights. Most likely the reels were production copies or just plain counterfeit, the listing was not online long before it was either met with an offer or taken down. Hopefully that doesn’t mean that we’ll be seeing a new series of reissues mastered from 1/2-inch tape.. Unfortunately a few of the other extant Doug Carn reissues have the same wow-and-flutter problem. Badly stored tapes, damaged playback equipment, sloppy transferring, or all of the above, it doesn’t really matter – the end result is that this precious, important music hasn’t received the treatment that it merits. But the most important thing is that it is still available and people can hear it. Since the reissued vinyl were most certainly just the CD master with an R$AA equalization curve applied, there isn’t much point in having both versions except for purely fetishistic reasons. Unless I can manage to get my hands on original vinyl pressings, they are however all we’ve got..

The liner notes by Doug Carn are a treasure. Written just for the reissue, they have a remarkable amount of detailed recollections for being composed more than thirty years after the recordings, showing just what a special time this was for everyone involved. While this is not my favorite of the Carn albums on Black Jazz, it is unique and on its own it is a great record. The title cut, which according to the notes was the first fruits of Doug’s experience with writing lyrics to other peoples’ music, stands out as the most fully realized work here.

Chester Thompson - 1971 - Powerhouse

Chester Thompson 

1971

Powerhouse

01. Mr. T 6:21
02. Trip One 9:00
03. Weird Harold 5:49
04. Power House 6:30

Drums – Raymond Pound
Organ – Chester Thompson
Saxophone – Rudolph Johnson
Trombone – Al Hall

Of all the musicians that recorded for the short-lived, innovative Black jazz label, organist Chester Thompson’s career, obviously because it was outside jazz, was most succesful. Thompson, who had grown up playing organ in church, and like many of his generation fell under the spell of modern organ jazz pioneer Jimmy Smith, toured the chitlin’ circuit with saxophonist Rudy Johnson in the late sixties. After his record debut Powerhouse in 1971, Thompson joined Tower Of Power, playing a crucial role in the popular and inventive funk group from 1973 till 1983. Thompson’s stretch on organ and keyboards with Carlos Santana lasted an impressive quarter century, from 1983 to 2009. During the mid-eighties, Thompson temporarily changed his name to Chester “T” Thompson to avoid confusion with the band’s drummer, Chester “Hey, I’m the real Chester!” Thompson. Leaving Santana, Thompson returned to his straigh-ahead jazz roots, recording Mixology in 2010 and performing frequently in the Bay area.

Black Jazz was founded in 1971 by pianist Gene Russell and Dick Schory, former drummer, audio tech and owner of Ovation Records, which came to distribute Black Jazz. It specialized in funk jazz and free jazz and shares the honor with Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver’s Strata-East label, which was also founded in ’71, of being a groundbreaking jazz record label of Afro-American ownership. Like Strata-East, Black Jazz is highly collectable and characterised by trademark, classy black and white sleeves. Powerhouse is number 6 in a catalogue that runs to only 20 albums and includes albums by pianists Walter Bishop Jr. and Doug Carn, who was a bestseller and the label’s most succesful artist.

A versatile player, Chester Thompson embellishes slow-dragging funk cuts like Powerhouse (listen here) with tacky blues voicings not unlike those of the great Jimmy McGriff, while his propulsive right hand lines occasionally decide to dribble playfully through the defense of the astringent, basic chords changes. The mid-tempo Trip One’s a more modern jazzy tune, in which Thompson’s style is close to the bebop-infested, pianistic lines of Jimmy Smith and Don Patterson. Underneath the cuts of Powerhouse boils a fat groove provided by drummer Raymond Pound (and Thompson’s bass lines) that show the influence of master funk jazz drummer Idris Muhammad. It may lack Muhammad’s crisp touch, but it’s deep and baaaaad.