Blood on the Leaf: Opus No. 1 cover

Blood on the Leaf: Opus No. 1

Released

When the late critic Greg Tate formed this group, the concept was deceptively simple: make music that was spiritual kin to Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, conjured through conducted improvisation, a methodology borrowed from Lawrence “Butch” Morris. The results sound nothing like electric Miles, and often don’t sound improvised at all. This is swirling jazz-rock/art-soul, like Westbound-era Funkadelic performing a jazz mass, with Lee Perry at the mixing board. Voices and instruments drift in and out as though heard in a dream, honoring no single tradition while embracing them all — the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s motto “Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future” applies.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Heritage Of The Invisible II cover

Heritage Of The Invisible II

Aquiles Navarro, Tcheser Holmes
In These Times cover

In These Times

Makaya McCraven
In Common 2 cover

In Common 2

Micah Thomas, Matthew Stevens, Linda May Han Oh, Walter Smith III
Komorebi cover

Komorebi

Context Chameleon
Disrespectful cover

Disrespectful

Tim Lefebvre, JZ Replacement
HH cover

HH

Lionel Loueke
Moon Rappin' cover

Moon Rappin'

Jack McDuff
Lune Rouge cover

Lune Rouge

Erik Truffaz