Under the Sun cover

Under the Sun

Released

This live album, self-released in 1974 and reissued by the Arista/Freedom label a year later, features a 13-member band that includes core members of BAG like Oliver Lake and Charles “Bobo” Shaw, but there are also guests like trumpeter Lester Bowie from Chicago’s AACM and other unaffiliated players. The single piece they perform, spread across both sides of the LP, is described in the liner notes as a free music symphony “based on an [Afghan] folk melody, ‘Lover’s Desire’”, and it manifests as a funky soul-jazz jam with electric bass and electric piano bolstered by a driving beat. Riding the groove, horn players take high-energy solos, as other members of the ensemble sing, chant, and rattle hand-held percussion instruments. It’s all very 1973, right down to the notation that it was “Produced by the Committee for Universal Justice,” but it’s much more than just a time capsule.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
Moving Cities cover

Moving Cities

Makaya McCraven, Antoine Berjeaut
Escape the Flames cover

Escape the Flames

Binker & Moses
Simultan cover

Simultan

Roland Kayn
Body and Soul cover

Body and Soul

David Murray Quartet
Viscera cover

Viscera

Brian Krock
Flood cover

Flood

Herbie Hancock
Melaza cover

Melaza

Scorch Trio
Eye of I cover

Eye of I

James Brandon Lewis
In These Times cover

In These Times

Makaya McCraven
Yakhal' Inkomo cover

Yakhal' Inkomo

Winston "Mankunku" Ngozi
Continuation cover

Continuation

Collocutor