The album is named later on Sanders's wife. Sanders moved away from the long, intense compositions of his solo albums as well as produced an album of shorter tracks. He as well as other musicians played a large diversity of instruments. Sanders played tenor, alto, as well as soprano saxophone, bailophone (African pollex piano), pocket-size percussion instruments, as well as a moo-cow horn.
Sanders's other major collaborator, pianist as well as composer Lonnie Liston Smith, performs on Thembi (though this would hold out the terminal fourth dimension they recorded together). Also featured are violinist Michael White, bassist Cecil McBee, as well as percussionists Chief Bey, Majid Shabbaz, as well as Nat Bettis. "Thembi", "Astral Travelling' as well as "Morning Prayer" were included on the two-disc anthology, You've Got to Have Freedom, on Soul Brother Records. ' Lonnie Liston Smith began experimenting with electrical keyboards land recording this album.
On Thembi, that was the kickoff fourth dimension that I e'er touched a Fender Rhodes electrical piano. We got to the studio inwards California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to gear upward his drums, Pharoah had to unpack all of his horns. Everybody had something to do, but the pianoforte was simply sitting at that topographic point waiting. I saw this musical instrument sitting inwards the corner as well as I asked the engineer, 'What is that?' He said, 'That's a Fender Rhodes electrical piano.' I didn't convey anything to do, as well as then I started messing with it, checking some of the buttons to encounter what I could practise with dissimilar sounds. All all of a precipitous I started writing a vocal as well as everybody ran over as well as said, 'What is that?' And I said, 'I don't know, I'm simply messing around.' Pharoah said, 'Man, nosotros gotta tape that. Whatcha gonna telephone band it?' I'd been studying astral projections as well as it sounded similar nosotros were floating through infinite as well as then I said let's telephone band it 'Astral Traveling.' That's how I got introduced to the electrical piano.
Thembi has been criticized for its somewhat cut-and-paste experience (it was compiled from 2 sessions, recorded inwards 1970 as well as 1971); the Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, written yesteryear Richard Cook as well as Brian Morton, offers a especially harsh assessment. However, Ashley Kahn, writer of The House that Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records, describes it every bit "a career high-point: [it was] co-produced yesteryear Michel as well as stone producer Bill Szymczyk, who together introduced Sanders's music to advanced studio techniques of the 24-hour interval — unopen miking, overdubbing, as well as effects similar reverb, echo, as well as phasing."
Recorded with 2 dissimilar ensembles, Thembi was a difference from the piece of cake developing, side-long, mantra-like grooves Pharoah Sanders had been pursuing for virtually of his solo career. It's musically all over the map but, fifty-fifty if it lacks the same consistency of mood every bit many of Sanders' previous albums, it does offering an intriguingly broad attain of relatively concise ideas, making it something of an anomaly inwards Sanders' prime number period. Over the half-dozen selections, Sanders romps through a tremendous diversity of instruments, including tenor, soprano, alto flute, fifes, the African bailophone, assorted pocket-size percussion, as well as fifty-fifty a moo-cow horn. Perhaps because he's preoccupied elsewhere, there's relatively trivial of his trademark tenor screaming, express to a greater extent than frequently than non to the thunderous cacophony of "Red, Black & Green" as well as portions of "Morning Prayer." The compositions, too, endeavour all sorts of dissimilar things. Keyboardist/pianist Lonnie Liston Smith's "Astral Traveling" is a shimmering, pastoral slice centered simply about his electrical pianoforte textures; "Love" is an intense, five-minute bass solo yesteryear Cecil McBee; as well as "Morning Prayer" as well as "Bailophone Dance" (which are segued together) add together an expanded percussion department devoted alone to African instruments. If there's a unifying factor, it's the classic championship track, which combines the softer lyricism of Sanders' soprano as well as Michael White's violin with the polyrhythmic grooves of the virtually Africanized textile (not to call a catchy bass riff). Some fans may gripe that Thembi isn't conceptually unified or intense enough, but it's rare to convey this many dissimilar sides of Sanders coexisting inwards i place, as well as that's what makes the album such an interesting listen.
It is foreign that 2 of the virtually striking albums made yesteryear saxophonist Pharoah Sanders during the kickoff level of belatedly 1960s/early 1970s astral jazz convey been as well as then frequently overlooked inwards reissue series. Tauhid (Impulse!, 1967)—the recording which launched astral jazz, the agency Sanders fashioned amongst harpist/pianist Alice Coltrane—and Thembi convey been available only intermittently during the terminal xx years.
Tauhid is unalloyed bliss from start to finish, a sweetness as well as lyrical evocation of Eastern mysticism which established astral's template: prominent African as well as Asian percussion instruments; velvet-sandpaper saxophone vocalizations as well as multiphonics; hummable tunes as well as melody-centric improvisations; stone steady bass ostinatos; pianoforte vamps; chanted vocals; rich collective grooves.
Thembi inhabits this territory over iv of its half-dozen tracks, but steps out of it on the other two. The album was recorded during 2 sessions—in Los Angeles inwards Nov 1970 (tracks 1-3), as well as inwards New York City inwards Jan 1971 (tracks 4-6)—with some changes inwards personnel. Sanders, pianist Lonnie Liston Smith as well as bassist Cecil McBee were nowadays at both sessions; violinist Michael White was inwards Los Angeles, though was featured little; traps drummer Roy Haynes as well as iv percussionists supervene upon Los Angeles' drummer Clifford Jarvis as well as percussionist James Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan inwards New York.
The album opens with Smith's "Astral Traveling," a lush, sweeping grouping workout foursquare inwards the astral paradigm; inwards 1973, Smith, too, used it every bit an opening track, on his solo debut Astral Traveling, on ex-Impulse! producer Bob Thiele's Flying Dutchman label. The tune is given an exquisite surgical physical care for on both albums, with Sanders' presence giving his Thembi version the edge.
But on Thembi, "Astral Traveling" proves to hold out the calm earlier the perfect storm. "Red, Black & Green," which follows, is every bit ferocious every bit is suggested yesteryear its title, a reference to the colors made emblematic yesteryear dark liberation movements inwards the U.S. of A. as well as Africa. At 8:56 minutes, it is the 2nd longest rail on the album, as well as Sanders' overdubbed saxophones are foregrounded practically throughout, played inwards a agency closer to the tumultuous i adopted yesteryear Sanders when he was a fellow member of saxophonist John Coltrane's groups inwards 1966-67. Here, Sanders' sole concession is to play inside a marginally to a greater extent than lyrical harmonic framework.
"Thembi" returns to the melodic, ostinato-driven palette of "Astral Traveling," earlier the album i time again switches out of the astral comfort zone.
"Love," is an unaccompanied, 5:12 infinitesimal bass solo. If you lot are already reaching for the "skip track" button, don't practise it. McBee turns inwards a corker, starting conventionally enough, albeit with frequent role of percussive, "Africanized" string-on-wood effects, earlier focusing on cleanly articulated high-harmonics (well recorded yesteryear producer Ed Michel as well as engineer Bill Szymczyk). Given all the tirelessly iterated ostinatos McBee contributed to Sanders' music—here as well as on Izipho Zam (Strata East, 1969) as well as Impulse!'s Jewels Of Thought (1970), Summun, Bukmun, Umyun (1970), Black Unity (1972), Wisdom Through Music (1972) as well as Village Of The Pharoahs (1973)—he was owed this 5 minutes alone, as well as he seizes them; "Love" is the form of rail that gives bass solos a proficient name.
The closing "Morning Prayer" as well as "Bailophone Dance" provide to to a greater extent than familiar, collective astral territory. "Morning Prayer," at 9:11 minutes the longest track, revisits the trigger-happy tenor heard on "Red, Black & Green," but inwards an amiable, ostinato-driven groove. "Bailophone Dance," built simply about a traditional West African cross-rhythm, makes proficient role of paw drummers Chief Bey, Majid Shabass, Anthony Wiles as well as Nat Bettis.
Delicious, essential listening.
Track listing:
1. Astral Travelling (Lonnie Liston Smith) - 5:48
2. Red, Black & Green (Sanders) - 8:56
3. Thembi (Sanders) - 7:02
4. Love (Cecil McBee) - 5:12
5. Morning Prayer (Sanders/Liston Smith) - 9:11
6. Bailophone Dance (Sanders) - 5:43
Personnel:
Pharoah Sanders – tenor as well as soprano saxophones, alto flute, koto, brass bells, balaphone, maracas, moo-cow horn, fifes
Lonnie Liston Smith – piano, electrical piano, claves, percussion, band cymbal, shouts, balaphone
Michael White – violin, percussion
Cecil McBee – bass, finger cymbal, percussion
Roy Haynes – drums
Clifford Jarvis – drums, maracas, bells, percussion
Nat Bettis, Chief Bey, Majid Shabazz, Anthony Wiles – African percussion
James Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan – band cymbal
EmoticonEmoticon