“Nothing he would produce later had the raw power of his early work, which combined an avant garde sensibility with a feeling for blues playing as deep as any Texas saxophonist from Arnett Cobb to Ornette Coleman.”
Alto saxophonist/flutist Julius Hemphill moved to St. Louis from Texas in 1968, and immediately threw himself into the very active creative music scene there. Nothing he would produce later had the raw power of his early work, which combined an avant garde sensibility with a feeling for blues playing as deep as any Texas saxophonist from Arnett Cobb to Ornette Coleman. As the title of this debut recording indicates, Hemphill also drew inspiration from Mother Africa. His most effective musical partner in this evocation of ancient musical roots was, curiously enough, cellist Abdul Wadud, who could make his axe combine the functions of a jazz bass and a Mississippi Delta guitarist. Drummer Philip Wilson and trumpeter Baikida Carroll fit in perfectly, with the horns blowing long but strongly-rooted solos over Wadud’s insistent bass figures and Wilson’s spare commentary.
Originally published by The Absolute Sound.Read it on The Absolute Sound