What I particularly appreciate about this recording is both the sophistication and the high professionalism of the ensemble. And, of equal if not greater importance, this is not just an assemblage of technicians reading tricky charts. Listen to the solos, they are wonderful. Special note to flautist Dadisi Komolafe who is the strongest I have heard on flute since Eric Dolphy. A number of the ensemble players are alumni of Horace Tapscott’s Pan Afrikan Arkestra, and my man Sunship Theus is ‘the’ West Coast trap drummer/percussion monster. Plus, I’ve got to at least mention keyboard maestro Nate Morgan Jr., smoking trombonist Charles Hamilton, and poet deserving of mucho recognition, K. Curtis Lyle (on“Nu Finitude, for Kwa Kwa”).
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There is a lot of artistry in how BETTYE LAVETTE sings. Indeed, unlike most pop artists in their sixties, she sounds better now than she did when she started. Back then she sounded similar to a bunch of other singers, both those who had made it and those who were “want-to-be-es,” just another beautiful body and attractive voice among many trying to be the next big thing. I believe the big difference is that today Bettye is singing out of the experience of being who she became, who she is today, rather than trying to sing like she used to be.
This is no retro celebration of old music, of bygone glory, but rather this is the sound of an esteemed elder singing the life lessons extracted from a long time on the hard road that is the misnamed yellow-brick-highway of the American dream. Bettye Lavette sings about surviving the slaughter of modern American life and debt; an inner-emotional-state that runs coast-to-coast, great lakes to gulf; a journey full of exorbitant emotional tolls and a myriad of unplanned detours; a life path full of roadhouses and very few final destinations, especially so when at first (and second, and third) you don’t succeed in reaching whatever you thought was your goal. This is the music that celebrates the reality of most of us.
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BUNNY WAILER, BOB MARLEY & PETER TOSH started off as one of the quintessential reggae vocal ensembles, The Wailers. After over ten years together, sharing the hard times and the lean times, and also after a critically acclaimed debut recording, Burnin’, the bond of friendship fractured. There are any number of theories about what the centre couldn’t hold—I’ve no interest whatsoever in doing an autopsy.
What I’m interested in is the magic that all three would come out with sterling albums in the same year. Moreover, while there is no doubt that Bob Marley is not only the major name in reggae, also he is unarguably the leading composer of reggae music, nevertheless, I am not alone in considering Bunny Wailer’s Blackheart Man the superior of the their respective 1976 recordings.
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In 1976 the former Wailers trio of Bunny Wailer, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh each issued a major album, we celebrate that moment. We also feature entrancing jazz from Ghasem Babamuntu and hard, modern blues from Bettye LaVette covering a wide range of music.