The Space Between: November 2020

A spiritual and cosmic jazz edition with reviews of Cosmic Vibrations, Kahil El’Zabar, Sun Ra Arkestra and Enrique Rodríguez

We were sitting in The Jekyll & Hyde pub in Edinburgh and Sun Ra was watching us from the table. This would have been a little over twenty years ago and I can’t recall why we were in Edinburgh, but it’s strange the things that do stick with you. In this case, one of my friends – who I will refer to as J – had bought a Sun Ra record and rather than keeping his purchase at floor level, he accorded Sun Ra pride of place on the table, his portrait propped up like some cosmic menu.

This is one of those memories that has lingered on the surface down through the years, yet I couldn’t even have told you which Sun Ra album it was. Although that changed a couple of months ago when I was looking through the jazz racks in Reckless and a Sun Ra cover jumped out at me. Could it be the one? I left the shop, but checked with another friend later on, before confirming with J. Reflections in Blue it was. To follow through on this mini-revelation, I went back to Reckless and brought Sun Ra home. He now watches as I write this introduction. Which feels appropriate given the spiritual and cosmic jazz focus of this particular column.

LA spiritual jazz ensemble Cosmic Vibrations light out for inner and outer space territories on Pathways & Passages for the Spiritmuse label, wherein band leader Dwight Trible employs undulating invocations to take the listener by the hand beyond the infinite. It’s quite a journey, yet never feels at a remove from the present. Pathways & Passages thus acts as a spiritually nourishing field guide for these unstable times. The same positive energy under adversity radiates whether an original piece (such as “Nature’s Vision”), spiritual (“Motherless Child”) or Bernstein musical number (“Some Other Time”). Indeed the interplay between the free percussion, shifting/seeking vocals and comforting bursts of horn on opener “Nature’s Vision” is so delightfully engaging that I challenge anyone not to be fully committed to the Cosmic Vibrations experience from that point on.

Also finding a home on Spiritmuse is Kahil El’Zabar’s more pointedly political – and just as deep – contemporary jazz odyssey America the Beautiful. El’Zabar leans into an avant-garde big band sound, with expressive renditions of popular American pieces and fired-up originals. The record explores different tones, employing African percussion and an almost hip-hop sensibility along the way. El’Zabar taps into the storied history of “Express Yourself”, adapting the Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band funk soul banger, but also its use as the sample foundation of the NWA joint of the same name. It’s the righteous fire of the Compton hip-hop crew that bubbles to the surface here. Bookending the album are re-appropriations of the patriot dream of “America the Beautiful”. The woozy vocal version of which feels like a free jazz hip-hop opera staged directly opposite Four Seasons Total Landscaping. It’s a sonic blast from society’s burning heart that is convincingly powerful and deliciously subversive. The words “What up, America?” are almost cast out at the end. What up, indeed.

Sweeping away from earthly matters – or at least out of Philadelphia parking lots – Sun Ra Arkestra’s Swirling (via Strut) is a rich otherworldly tapestry. Sun Ra himself may no longer be with us, but on the evidence of the Arkestra’s first studio album in two decades, his spirit not only endures, but is radiating with life. Ra’s right hand Saturnian Marshall Allen navigates the group through vital versions of Arkestra classics and obscurities which always energise and never alienate the listener. Saturn might not provide solid ground on which to hit running, but opening cosmic salute “Satellites Are Spinning / Lights on a Satellite” pulls off the trick nonetheless. “Seductive Fantasy” then opens up the gates further, deep space age living revealed at the end of a generational journey. Marshall Allen’s own swing composition “Swirling” is the glorious sound of big band being played on a distant moon, whereas “Rocket No 9” is an Afrofuturist response to Ray Bradbury bursting with cosmic jazz proclamations that could be hip-hop call and response from another universe. Sun Ra’s sonicbook continues to inspire and invite fresh interpretation. At 96 years old Marshall Allen remains a vital force to shepherd these new forms into existence. 

“The rite acknowledges the past as it sets the path.” Words printed underneath the tracklisting of Fase Liminal by Enrique Rodríguez & The Negra Chiway Band. Words that the group makes their art by, it would seem. For this is an international record that utilises local flavours, a jazz collection that forges ahead without dismissing what has gone before. A new signing to Soul Jazz Records, Rodríguez and his visionary music makers turn the vibrational energy up and deliver a forward-thinking Chilean take on spiritual jazz. “Dónde?” begins with the upside-down unease of a Jodorowsky score, before opening out with Alice Coltrane harp as it shifts into a club conscious fusion landscape. It moves along similarly progressive lines to the varied likes of International Anthem, Emma-Jean Thackray or even As One’s modal jazz electronics for Mo’ Wax. The thirteen minute alternate take that closes the album travels further off-piste, adding some lopsided Maher Shalal Hash Baz vibes to the room. Elsewhere, the chanting and voicing of “Vindakalla-Welukan (Autoconfrontación)” recalls Brazil’s answer to Jean-Claude Vannier, Fernando Falcão, and “No Quiero Seguir Así” is a soul blast for the heads with hints of El Michels Affair and Dilla. Whether block rocking slow jam, outer reaches jazz or broken Chilean-flavoured beats, the sounds from Enrique Rodríguez & The Negra Chiway Band are good for the ears and the soul.