Amazing sounds from drummer Roy Brooks – very spiritual work that's quite a change from his straighter soul jazz of the 60s! The album's right up there with Roy's better-known (though still rare) live performance at Town Hall – or his classic Free Slave session – and like those records, this one explodes with a raw power that's really amazing – heavy drums from Brooks, driving a collective of righteous musicians that really stretch out in the free space of the recording! The clineup shifts a bit from track to track, but there's a cohesive spirit to the record that comes from Brooks' bold spirit – a joyous, soulful, post-Coltrane sort of energy – let loose in the lead, to guide the talents of players who include John Stubblefield on tenor, Sonny Fortune on alto, Olu Dara and Cecil Bridgewater on trumpets, Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax, Joe Bonner on piano, and Reggie Workman on bass. Eddie Jefferson makes an appearance on two tracks – singing much hipper than on any of his better-known recordings of the period – and titles include "The Last Prophet", "M'Jumbe", "Eboness", "The Smart Set", and "Eboness (Kwanza)". LP, Vinyl record album

Amazing sounds from the righteous Roy Brooks – a drummer who worked strongly in the soul jazz mainstream of the 60s, then stepped out into even headier territory here in the 70s! The album's a spiritual masterpiece all the way through – an album on par with early 70s Impulse sides from Pharoah Sanders or Archie Shepp, or the best from Strata East – cut with a similar blend of righteous rhythmic undercurrents, freewheeling solos, and vocalizations that really help underscore the message in the music! The lineup is filled with players as powerful as Brooks – Joe Bonner on piano, Reggie Workman on bass, Cecil Bridgewater on trumpet, Sonny Fortune on tenor and soprano saxes, and John Stubblefield on oboe – plus vocals by Dee Dee Bridgewater, who's easily at her most righteous here. The album features the long "Black Survival" suite – with passages that include "Here & Now", "Prologue", "Sahel", and "Relief". LP, Vinyl record album

One of Lonnie Liston Smith's most spiritual sessions, and the record that most clearly shows his roots with Pharoah Sanders! The vibe here is much more jazz-based than on some of Lonnie's other records for Flying Dutchman – with Smith playing as much acoustic piano as he does electric, using the former in long-spiralling lines that have a beautifully meditative quality, and which give the album a real Strata East-like sound. Mtume and Sonny Morgan play percussion, Cecil McBee plays bass, and the real star of the album may well be George Barron – who turns in some beautiful Sonny Fortune-like work on tenor and soprano sax! Titles include "Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord", "Rejuvenation", "Astral Traveling", "I Mani", "Aspirations", and "In Search Of Truth". LP, Vinyl record album

A wonderfully wide-ranging tribute to the great John Coltrane – served up here in a whole host of tracks recorded after his too-early death, each of which take his musical message in different directions! The sound is certainly spiritual – in keeping with the different volumes in this long-running series – but there's a nice mix of expressions and instrumentation, offering up a journey into John Coltrane's important influence on so many different spheres of jazz – far more than you might expect! And this isn't just a set of Coltrane remakes or covers, either, as new songs are mixed with familiar ones – in a well-chosen batch of tracks that includes "Trane" by Carmelo Garcia, "Transition" by Malachi Thompson, "John Coltrane" by Clifford Jordan, "Naima" by Darwin Strickland Trio, "Terre Engloutie" by Gilles Torrent Jazztet, "To Trane" by Carsten Meinert Kvartet, "Welcome" by Norman Connors, "Ole" by Sonny Fortune, and "Naima" by Jack McDuff. LP, Vinyl record album

A rare non-Impulse Records album from the early days of Pharoah Sanders – but a set that ranks right up there with his classics for that legendary label! The album's one of the classics in Strata East's Dolphy Series – and it's a uniquely collaborative session from 1969, one that has Sanders working with a largeish group that includes Sonny Fortune on alto sax, Sonny Sharrock on guitar, Lonnie Liston Smith on piano, Leon Thomas on vocals, and Cecil McBee on bass – all coming together with a freely exploratory sort of energy, one that's a bit like some of Archie Shepp's most righteous sides from the same time. Sanders' tenor still dominates most numbers, but not as much as on some of the Impulse sides – and there's a nicely relaxed and personal feel to the whole album. The album features 3 long tracks – "Prince Of Peace", which has Leon Thomas doing his "Creator Has A Master Plan" thing, and the cuts "Balance" and "Izipho Zam", the latter of which jams for a full 28 minutes! LP, Vinyl record album