Maulawi

Soul Jazz Records are re-issuing this lost classic deep jazz album. This is the only recording of Maulawi Nururdin and his group. Originally recorded in Chicago in Sep 1973, and released by a small independent label in Detroit the following year. The music fell between the gap of the avant-garde and straight-ahead jazz, and had elements of Funk and Latin that were rare at the time that meant that commercially it sank without a trace -- but, thirty years on, we can see that these are exactly the elements that help make it a unique album, years ahead of its time. Maulawi grew up in Chicago and, as the album sleeve states, was part of the great heritage of Chicago music that ranged from the electric blues of Muddy Waters, the straight ahead jazz of Ahmad Jamal, through to the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, Anthony Braxton and other members of the avant-garde royalty. As a saxophonist he was also part of the tradition of great Chicago horn-players that includes Gene Ammons, Eddie Harris, Johnny Griffin and many more. Maulawi had led his own group since the 1960s and a number of young musicians came up through his group -- Billy Greenfield, Jack DeJohnette, Jerome Cooper and on this album a16 year old Adam Rudolph (who currently records on Soul Jazz Records as Hu Vibrational). Maulawi was a multi-instrumentalist and bandleader and although he specialised on saxophones, also played oboe, piano, drums and more. His career was on the periphery of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the collective of avant-garde musicians in Chicago that included Richard Muhal Abrams, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Amina Claudine Myers -- he was never a member but often played with those involved in this musical community, musicians such as Billy Brentfield and Fred Anderson. In 1973 the group went into the studio to record this one record for Strata Records in Detroit, an independent label run by Kenny Cox (who himself had led the Contemporary Jazz Quintet on Blue Note Records) and Charles Moore. A planned association that never worked out also led to the birth of another label, Strata East Records in New York, run by Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell."