The Khan Jamal creative arts ensemble

Drum dance to the motherland

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• 1 cosmic echoes
• 2 drum dance to the motherland
• 3 inner peace
• 4 breath of life

The super-tuned ears at Honest Jons have picked up on something extremely special with this 1972 LP from The Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble. A quintet headed by band leader Khan Jamal on vibraphone, marimba and clarinet, the group started out as an R&B band with Jazz leanings called Sounds Of Liberation, enjoying enough local success to be asked to open for Ike and Tina Turner and Kool and The Gang, but by '72 the group were delving into far wilder sonic territory as proved on this LP. Originally released on the Dogtown imprint, and recorded live at a basement coffeehouse named the Catacombs, the group's sound here is entriely improvised, incorporating elements of free jazz, early dub electronics, funk, blues and African folk entwined into an intuitive and amorphous cosmic mass that recalls classic Sun Ra jams and early Jamaican dub. While the group centred around traditional intstrumentation from the core 5 players, the inclusion of Mario Falana's skilled sound system tweaking and real time delay/reverb manipulation effectively adds a sixth player to the ensemble, casting a mesh of psychedelic otherworldliness over the group to coax out Africanised polyrhythms and a technologically enhanced spirituality. There's a hell of a lot to take in here but initial reactions will confirm that this LP demands many repeated listens.