An avant-garde treat.
Blind buy here on India Navigation. Very seldom do I take a chance on an artist or album I haven’t listen to before when visiting a record store. I’m happy I did cause this album is lovely. It’s the debut by baritonist Hamiet Bluiett. He was a multi-instrumentalist and besides his primary instrument he also played the bass saxophone, E-flat alto clarinet, E-flat contra-alto clarinet, and wooden flute.
The music here has both spiritual and avant-garde elements. It’s a live recording from 1976 at The Ladies’ Fort in New York. The cats playing with Bluiett are Jumma Santos on balafon, Junie Booth on double bass, Olu Dara on trumpet and Phillip Wilson on drums. All are new to me. Dara on trumpet is superb. So cool to discover these wonderful artists that are definitely not household names in jazz. At least not for me.
My explorations into the 70’s and 80’s continues and I must say I haven’t had this much fun collecting as I do now, and the journey hasn’t been quite this rewarding, on so many levels, than it is at this moment.