Mtume - 1977 - Rebirth Cycle

Mtume

1977

Rebirth Cycle

01. Sais (Intro) 2:22

02. Sais 20:39

03. Yebo 6:07

04. Cabral 4:29

05. Body Sounds 3:42

06. Umoja 6:41

Track 5 is uncredited except for the following information "Body Sounds is an electronically altered conga solo by Mtume accompanied by the band using their bodies as percussion instruments (hands rubbing, chest thumping, etc.). Hence the title Body Sounds."

All songs written and arranged by Mtume

Bass – Buster Williams, Cecil McBee

Bass Guitar – Michael Henderson

Cello – Diedre Johnson

Clarinet, Reeds – John Stubblefield

Drums – Al Foster, Andrei Strobert, Billy Hart

Electric Piano – Bayeté (2)

Guitar – Pete Cosey, Reggie Lucas

Percussion, Vocals – Mtume*

Piano – Stanley Cowell

oprano Saxophone, Reeds – Azar Lawrence, Jimmy Heath

Violin – Leroy Jenkins

Vocals – Carol Robinson*, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jean Carn, Onika (2)*, Shirley Jenkins

Voice [Poet] – Muktar Mustapha

Recorded July 1974 at Minot Studio / N. Y.

Recorded in 1974 but only released in 1977, this record has the former Miles Davis lead an ensemble featuring some other members of Miles' band like Michael Henderson, Reggie Lucas, Pete Cosey and Billy Hart through his own hypnotic fusion grooves to support afro related poetry. It may be considered a sequel to 1972's Alkebu-Lan Land of the Blacks. Very intense spiritual fusion with a strong percussive backbone, male and female vocals, and great contributions from bass clarinet, violin and electric guitars.....

Most people will know Mtume as the high gloss soul man from the early '80s, responsible for the excellent Juicy Fruit album. Before this though he was a jazz session percussionist, and worked with artists such as Miles Davis, and featured on albums by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Harry Whittaker and Freddie Hubbard. Before turning to his more noted soul style, Mtume wrote, or co wrote, three deep afro-centric jazz albums; one as a band leader of the Mtume Umoja Ensemble for the 1971 Strata East album Alkebu-Lan: Land of the Blacks - Live at the East, another was Kuumba-Toudie Heath’s 1969 Kawaida album, and the first one to be listed as a Mtume album was 1977’s Rebirth Cycle which was released on 3rd Street Records.

Rebirth Cycle, though released in 1977, was actually made in 1974, and the album’s personnel list reads like a veritable who’s-who of the musicians who where working in the more independent jazz scene of the early seventies. Working on this album, you had Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jean Carne on vocals. Strata East players like Cecil McBee and Buster Williams on bass, Stanley Cowell on piano and Jimmy Heath on reeds. This album is also the first introduction to the mighty voice of Tawatha Agee (Tawatha) who would remain the co vocalist with the Mtume band right through to the mid eighties.

Musically, Rebirth Cycle is a fusion of afro-centric deep jazz and psychedelic spacey funk.

The main piece on here, and the album’s high point, is the side long “Sais” (sigh-us). This 20 plus minute tune starts with the spoken introduction by Senegalese poet Mustapha, explaining the story of “Mystery System of Sais, the Egyptian school of higher learning from which Greek and Western philosophy was developed”. Once the introduction is over one of the most magical and hypnotic musical 20 minutes you could sit through begins. From the slow and haunting bass clarinet solo through crashing waves of vocal chaos plus one almighty guitar solo by Reggie Lucas, all backed by a solid groove that is cut so deep it would be impossible to climb out of, even if you wanted to. There are moments in this piece where the cacophony is such that it feels like you’re consumed in a hypnotic aural cloud, and you find yourself not wanting to come out of it, or at least for the tune not to come to an end. Then the chaos ebbs away, the bass clarinet solo slowly unearths itself from the onslaught of the other instruments and the poetry returns. You then find yourself coming to from this 20 minute musical roller coaster ride, and you cannot help but feel total exhilaration. On Side two of this album the tracks are shorter in length and are much more afro-centric funk in style. The vocal work on this side of the album is truly sublime, whether it is “Yebo” the Oneness Of Juju style groover with magical vocals by Tawatha Agee, the haunting beauty of Jean Carn’s performance on Cabral, or the traditional African nasal style on the closing track “Umoja”. Rebirth Cycle does not contain a weak moment anywhere on the entire recording, and is really worth seeking out a copy. It's incredible to think that albums like this remain so impossibly lost for so long without being reissued, particularly in this current jazz revival climate. Criminal!!!

Obscure set of 70's soul jazz tracks, recorded by percussionist Mtume, with a host of great like-minded performers, including Stanley Cowell, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, Leroy Jenkins, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jean Carn, and Buster Williams. The sound is similar to some of the Carlos Garnett or Norman Connors albums from the early 70's, and has an approach that's very much in the Strata East mode. Tracks are long, with lots of righteous phrasing and full, progressive rhythm

Norman Connors - 1974 - Slew Foot

Norman Connors

1974

Slew Foot

01. Mother Of The Future    6:49

02. Back On The Street    3:57

03. Welcome    7:20

04. Slew Foot    3:19

05. Dreams    6:14

06. Chuka3:27

07. Jump Street    2:40

Acoustic Bass, Electric Bass – Ron Carter (tracks: A1, A3, B2)

Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Gary Bartz

Clavinet – Hubert Eaves

Congas, Bongos – Lawrence Killian

Drums – Norman Connors

Electric Bass – Anthony Jackson (tracks: A2, B1, B3, B4)

Electric Piano – Elmer Gibson

Flute, Alto Flute – Hubert Laws

Guitar – Reggie Lucas

Percussion – Dom Um Romao, Skip Drinkwater

Tenor Saxophone – Carlos Garnett

Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Eddie Henderson

Vocals – Jean Carn

1975's Slewfoot continues Norman Connors' diversification into jazz-funk and brassy R&B with mostly positive results. Surrounded as usual by an all-star personnel -- including but not limited to vocalist Jean Carn, bassist Ron Carter, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith, tenor saxophonist Gary Bartz, horn player Eddie Henderson, and flutist Hubert Eaves III -- Connors tears through a mostly hard-driving set of songs. Carlos Garnett's "Mother of the Future" leads off the album as a frenetic jazz-funk workout and offers each instrumentalist a chance to flex muscles; Carn is particularly hot, while Elmer Gibson's electric piano runs highlight the latter half of the song. Henderson's "Dreams" and a gorgeous reworking of Coltrane's "Welcome" (Carn takes another spotlight) are the only reprieves from the upbeat slant. The remainder is dotted with decent but slightly innocuous funk and fusion instrumentals that are occasionally punctuated by bold horn charts (Richard Clay's "Back on the Street," Elmer Gibson's "Chuka," Connors' "Jump Street"). Not one of Connors' best, but it does have its moments.

Norman Connors is a fascinating artist to me. Starting out as a free jazz drummer with people such as Archie Shepp and Pharaoh Sanders,Connors was something of an internal talent scout during the 1970’s. His early solo career consisted of solo albums with an avant garde fusion style that somewhat anticipated the rise of the new age musical concept. By the end of the decade,Connors was known primarily for romantic soul ballads featuring the lead vocals of artists such Jean Carn,the bassist Michael Henderson and his major pet project in the late Phyllis Hyman. One of these ballads,”You Are My Starship” is still his best known song.

Over the past decade or so,I’ve been progressively exploring the music of Norman Connors album by album. Even though he became known for his slow numbers,it was through his uptempo material that his music really evolved. And it was an exciting time too because Connors original run as a solo artist started at the dawn of the funk era and came to a conclusion around the beginning of the post disco period. One major period of his career that has attracted me was from when Connors began transitioning from jazz to a more funk/soul sound in the mid 70’s. And one major cornerstone of that was the title song to his 1974 album Slew Foot.

A hard,fluttering horn chart led by Eddie Henderson opens up the groove as  Connors in similar manner to the Bar Kays’ choral horns from 1967’s “Soul Finger”.  The Clavinet of Hubert Eaves plays additional rhythm support-as each refrain is separated by a break featuring a bluesy amp’d guitar from future Mtume member Reggie Lucus. He is supported on bass by Anthony Jackson on those scaling,cinematic refrains before Lucas gets a chance to really rock out on the middle chorus of the song. The rhythm scales back down to the drums,bass line and Clavinet on the final part of the song. Especially right as the horns fanfare the song right into fade out.

Norman Connors really lifted up cinematic funk at a very important time. This was during the blacksploitation era when Isaac Hayes was winning best musical score for his work on Shaft. Not to mention Curtis Mayfield’s huge success with Superfly  and Roy Ayers with Coffey. Even though this song wasn’t in a movie,it was surely funk that moved itself on every level. Both rhythmically and melodically. It was also a building block in the evolution of Reggie Lucus’s transition into funk with the late 70’s edition of Mtume as well. So as a musician and a major talent assembler,this was some of Norman Connors’ finest funk!

Doug & Jean Carn - 1976 - Higher Ground

Doug & Jean Carn

1976

Higher Ground

01. Western Sunrise
02. The Messenger
03. Revelation
04. Infant Eyes
05. Higher Ground
06. Naima
07. Little B's Poem
08. Blue And Green
09. Mighty Mighty

Acoustic Bass – Gerald Brown
Congas, Bongos, Percussion – Big Black
Design [Cover] – Jerry Napier
Drums – Harold Mason
Electric Bass [Fender] – Darrell Clayborn
Guitar – Calvin Keys, Nathan Page
Keyboards, Vocals – Doug Carn
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Ronnie Laws
Trombone – Thurman Green
Vocals – Jean Carn, John Conner, Joyce Green

When the 1980s acid-jazz movement showed how early jazz-funk could so successfully be hitched to later dancefloor sounds that even pop DJs noticed, the cult crossover hits of pianist/composer Doug Carn and vocalist Jean Carne (she adopted the "e") were dug out of vinyl collections. Between 1972 and 1973 in LA, the gifted married couple had collaborated on a brilliant series of albums for the Black Jazz label, infusing the musical and spiritual agenda of cutting-edge jazz with seductive soul/R&B hooks. But they soon split, and the vocally dazzling Jean became a Philly R&B star, disco diva, and eventually revered sample-source for hip-hop artists.

Forty years after the Black Jazz period, the long-estranged couple are recounting that absorbing story with every appearance of cordiality and plenty of their old skilfulness and spirit. Their life story obliged the backing band to shift abruptly from a hybrid free-jazz/funk vibe to a Motown groove or a four-to-the-floor disco beat, which brought the occasional lapse of tightness. But Carn's sparing solos and supportive, arranger's chordwork on the Fender Rhodes, and Carne's octave leaps, unfussy scat, soul-power and cool theatricality took care of almost everything. Carne entered after a smoky instrumental opener, and saxophonist Stacy Dillard shadowed her closely – from her solemn proclamations to rhythm – wrenching improvisations on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme.

Many fans were there for the Motown and disco songs (the silence when she asked if anyone knew their iconic 1972 Infant Eyes album was an indication of that), and the second half of the set cruised through hits like Was That All It Was, Free Love and Don't Let It Go to Your Head. Carn and Carne know everything about transforming such materials, though. His keyboard quirks, and her beseeching soul tones, lithe-at-65 dancefloor strutting and devious phrasing – she dances up to resolving notes by the most unexpected routes – banish almost every hint of the formulaic.

On Higher Ground, Doug and Jean Karn apply fantastic vocals to jazz that flies like be-bop, has the openness of modes, and uses a nice balance of electric and acoustic instruments. Bass and some piano provide a lot of the backbone, but an funk organ solo chimes into the middle of the title track.

There are unique juxtapositions of 60s and 70s, old and new, organic and synthetic. If you can picture Miles' 60s band playing some of his 70s interludes, you're getting warm, Listen to the spacey keyboards on the cover of Coltrane's "Niama."

Maybe they call this stuff Spirit Jazz due to its mainly angelic nuance--the music swings hard, but maintains a lightness, never overpowering the strong but gentle female vocals. The tracks are airy, but have tons of substance.

You gotta check this out.