David S. Ware

“Avant garde got soul too” - so opined drummer Charles Moffett with some amount of amusement through a composition title on album for Savoy in 1969. The controversial observation was likely shared if unstated by William Hooker, a generation younger and just getting his start in so-called fire music after an apprenticeship in soul jazz. Light directs an edifying and expansive beam on these efforts, bringing into focus a cache of recordings that trace the drummer’s development from journeyman to self-styled Griot. Adding up to well over four hours of music, the bulk of it is previously unreleased.

Heaven and Earth is a double album containing 2.5 hours of new music. The Earth side represents the world Kamasi sees outwardly, the world that he is a part of. The Heaven side represents the world he sees inwardly, the world that is a part of him. “The world that my mind lives in, lives in my mind.”

Milton Marsh - Monism (2016) {Strata East-Manufactured Recordings MFG-036 rec 1973-74}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 258 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 96 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 9 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1975, 2016 Strata East / Manufactured Recordings | SES-19758 / MFG-036
Jazz / Spiritual Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Big Band / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Rare spiritual jazz by reed player Milton Marsh – one of the harder-to-find albums on Strata East – and one of just a couple incredible records to Marsh's name! Obscurity aside, this is prime Strata East – with some sprawling moments in a larger band formation that go just far out enough, but an overall approach that's pretty inside, very much in the label's strong 70s soul jazz tradition. There's a pretty large cast of players in action, including some legendary ones like saxophonist David Ware, percussionist Greg Bandy, Cedric Lawson on piano and others. Titles include "Vonda's Tune", the incredible "Monism" with its spoken word excerpt from Hazrat Inayat Khan's Sufi Message, nicely read by Marsh himself over an amazing mix of soulful strings and tense interplay, plus "Metamorphosis", "Community Music", "Sabotage 3 Preparations" and "Ode to Nzinga". A lost masterpiece!

Cecil Taylor - Dark To Themselves (1976) {Enja 2084 2 rel 1990}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 369 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 147 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 14 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1976, 1990 Enja Records | 2084 2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative / Piano

Dark to Themselves is a continuous 61-plus-minute performance by pianist Cecil Taylor and his 1976 quintet (which also includes such fiery players as trumpeter Raphe Malik, his longtime altoist Jimmy Lyons, tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, and drummer Marc Edwards). There is a quick theme along with brief transitions that form the composition "Streams and Chorus of Seed," but the bulk of the passionate performance is taken up by spontaneous and intense solos. Listeners with very open ears, and longtime fans of Taylor's, can consider this explosive performance essential.

This is a united & mighty pair of brand new studio albums from drummer-bandleader Whit Dickey which were created together with two distinct yet interrelated Quartets. The two works represent the Yin and the Yang respectively, the inseparable and complementary opposites, following an ancient and enduring understanding of the world. Dickey chose Tao Quartets as the name for these groups / this specific work as the Tao wholly incorporates an understanding of this eternal dynamic, and it is here to be heard.