Pharoah Sanders Spirits

Pharoah Sanders, Hamid Drake, Adam Rudolph - Spirits (2000) {Meta Digital Download, Bandcamp 16-44.1 rel 2016}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (bandcamp.com) -> 353 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 142 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 2000, 2016 Meta Records | META 004
Jazz / Ethno Jazz / Progressive Jazz / World Fusion / Saxophone / Percussion

This in-concert recording at the Montreal Jazz Festival is a continual performance that acts as a suite in three basic parts, with Sanders on tenor sax, wood flutes, and percussion, helped by multipercussionists Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph. The music is as the title suggests: spiritual, multi-ethnic, mostly serene, and quite improvisationally derived. It's a beautiful statement from Sanders, very similar to the music Yusef Lateef has played (with Rudolph and Eternal Wind) and different than his more major-label efforts.

Randy Weston - The Spirits Of Our Ancestors (1991) {2CD Set Antilles 314-511 896-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 603 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 255 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 85 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1991 Antilles / PolyGram | 314-511 896-2
Jazz / Post Bop / African / Piano

Pianist Randy Weston and arranger Melba Liston had a musical reunion on this special double-CD, their first joint project since 1973's Tanjah. Liston's charts for the pianist's ten originals perfectly fit Weston's adventurous style and the twelve-piece group (which includes three percussionists) is filled with highly individual voices including the tenors of Billy Harper and Dewey Redman. With trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and tenor-saxophonist Pharoah Sanders making guest appearances and Randy Weston heard at the peak of his powers, this is a highly recommended set.

Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. Teaming with a cast of musicians that includes bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, and Sanders (listed here as "Little Rock"), etc. Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark. The set begins with a shorter, more lyrical version of Thomas' signature tune "The Creator Has a Master Plan," with the lyric riding easy and smooth alongside the yodel, which bubbles up only in the refrains. It's a different story on his own "One," with Davis' piano leading the charge and Spaulding blowing through the center of the track, Thomas alternates scatting and his moaning, yodeling, howling, across the lyrics, through them under them and in spite of them…

Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. Teaming with a cast of musicians that includes bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, and Sanders (listed here as "Little Rock"), etc. Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark. The set begins with a shorter, more lyrical version of Thomas' signature tune "The Creator Has a Master Plan," with the lyric riding easy and smooth alongside the yodel, which bubbles up only in the refrains. It's a different story on his own "One," with Davis' piano leading the charge and Spaulding blowing through the center of the track, Thomas alternates scatting and his moaning, yodeling, howling, across the lyrics, through them under them and in spite of them…

Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. Teaming with a cast of musicians that includes bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, and Sanders (listed here as "Little Rock"), etc. Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark. The set begins with a shorter, more lyrical version of Thomas' signature tune "The Creator Has a Master Plan," with the lyric riding easy and smooth alongside the yodel, which bubbles up only in the refrains. It's a different story on his own "One," with Davis' piano leading the charge and Spaulding blowing through the center of the track, Thomas alternates scatting and his moaning, yodeling, howling, across the lyrics, through them under them and in spite of them…

Randy Weston - Khepera (1998) {Verve 314 557 821-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 363 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 163 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1998 Verve Records / PolyGram | 314 557 821-2
Jazz / Post Bop / African / Chinese / Piano

The team of Randy Weston, composer/pianist, and Melba Liston, arranger, returns triumphantly to the territory carved out by The Spirits of Our Ancestors – only not at quite such length (just one CD) and with a new thrust, exploring ancient connections between African and Chinese cultures. The CD opens with a mighty building crash of percussion and continues in a kind of freeform depiction of creation, with Pharaoh Sanders – in thrilling form throughout much of the album – honking and evoking ancient spirits. A tragic grandeur sets in, the Chinese elements are evoked, and then midway through the record, the concept loses its train of thought; the rest of the album becomes a series of disconnected pieces (the theme of "Niger Mambo" threatens to break into "Puttin' On the Ritz" at any moment).

This supreme set includes all 24 performances from the two events, Ornette’s last performance at the «Celebrate Brooklyn» show and his Memorial at Riverside Church.