“Few albums have ever announced so unequivocally the arrival of a major new talent; it’s simply one of the most vital and exciting jazz albums ever recorded.”
Julius Hemphill’s Dogon A.D. must lie somewhere very near the top of the Top 10 List of Greatest Jazz Debut Recordings. Hemphill had recorded just one previous album, The Collected Poem for Blind Lemon Jefferson, a duet with poet K. Curtis Lyle, the year before. But this quartet date with trumpeter Baikida Carroll, cellist Abdul Wadud, and drummer Philip Wilson – rightly – was the first released on his own Mbari label. Few albums have ever announced so unequivocally the arrival of a major new talent; it’s simply one of the most vital and exciting jazz albums ever recorded. Saxophone Colossus (Prestige) may have given the world its first full measure of Sonny Rollins, or Unit Structures (Blue Note) of Cecil Taylor, but even those artists had several albums under their belts when they made their recorded breakthrough. Hemphill burst fully formed onto vinyl on his very first album.
Originally published by Point of Departure.Read it on Point of Departure