Ikef Records
Brother Ah : Sound Awareness : Move ever onward (US,1975)****°
Free Jazz enjoyed a very short "mystic"/spiritual period with a true search of the spiritual awareness in music, using words like "Cosmic" or "Celestial", etc.. It was a spiritual movement lead by and stimulated by black people, with esotheric acknowledgement and with musical experiments by Sun Ra, in spirit by Pharoah Sanders, in musical awareness by John Coltrane. And there were others that were possibly stimulated by this movement or that adapted equally other World instruments, (like other worldly instruments, so) not from a rational idealistic viewpoint, but from a spiritual consciousness, to dig those elements in world music instruments that were common to express an inner voice and need, leading into new expressions of "sound awareness". Don Cherry combined world musical instruments this way. Sun Ra once studied to be a teacher in college, where he stimulated awareness of deeper consciousness (Blavatski, Rosicrucian, Egyptology, color therapy, ethymology, but also the spiritually channelled "Book of Oashpe", where Sun Ra might have derived some of his ideas of "space is the place" etc., a good excuse to open consciousness and awareness to a higher plane, to an opening musical structure with a spontaneous awareness through music, overruling a limiting intellect that might fall back on technical repetitions only). People that would follow up from Sun Ra should be aware of these fundaments. Brother Ah surely did.
First track "Nature's children" (ra) with a soft bass, sitar, female voice with "spiritual talk" reminds me both of Alice Coltrane (as second example using Indian elements in jazz), and Don Robertson in mood.
Second track "Transfiguaration", written in memory of Eric Dolphy, uses a very relaxed jazzy mood too, with contemporary Negro singing and flutes. Surreal. New New age but reference to music of all the ages, then expanding, with some free jazz improvisation structures, still structured and with beautiful emotional outburst, like a Free Negro Spiritual.
This flows perfectly into the acoustic guitars and complex handpercussion of "Enthousiasm".
The next track "Spirits in the night" is a moody souljazz song possibly made in far memory of slavery and transforming it into a state with some peace of mind. "Boundless rhythm" , as the title suggests is mostly a repetitive catchy rhythm with spiritual speak. "Transcendental march (an ode to creation)" is like a spiritual celebration party. Beautiful.
"The transcendental march" is a bit overloaded by percussion, creating a jungle of sound, more as being created by children than all derived from professional mastership, except for the structure given by the bass instrument. It referred to the whirling dervishes in Sudan. I think I will appreciate it after mor listens.
"Celestial Strings" lead by koto, sitar, and African kora, follows a double rhythm on the edge of something that could lead either to chaos or a new structure, without any disturbing effect, describing a paradoxal theme of joy (described by the sitar) with sorrow (described by the koto), the one never winning over the other, both always present with each other's awareness. A composition in the real spiritual musicality sense.
"Sweet illumination, 'Chile Woman' " dedicated to Gayle Jones is more free jazz structured, slightly chaotic with lots of appearing sounds, and again with gospel like singing, and a quiet flute improvisation passage. Great.
A very interesting album, and a must for fans of music like Alice Coltrane,.. 25 musicians participated here !
