Emanative: The Light Years Of The Darkness

Rating: ★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Tom Page
Ben Hadwen
Marco Piccioni (g)
Gemma Williams
Yussef Dayes (d)
Collocutor
Nick Haward
Monique Ngozi Nri
Kenneth Nash (perc)
Liz Elensky (v, spoken word)
Tamar Osborn (bs, cl, f)
Jessica Lauren (p, org)
Ahmad Dayes
Jason Simpson
Kareem Dayes
Finn Peters
Maurizio Ravalico (perc)
Wayne Francis (ts)
Tello Morgado
Simon Finch
Ben Page
Mally Harpaz
Suman Joshi (b)
Idris Ackamoor (v, ts, as, f)
Andre Espeut
Olie Brice (b)

Label:

Brownswood/The Steve Reid Foundation

July/2015

Catalogue Number:

BWOOD0136LP/5060180322380

RecordDate:

date not stated

This sumptuous double LP is the first release in support of The Steve Reid Foundation, a charity (named after the late drummer and co-ordinated by DJ Gilles Peterson), which offers support for crisis-struck musicians and education initiatives for struggling young talent. Emanative is the nom de guerre of producer Nick Woodmansey (son of ex-Spider From Mars, Woody) who, for this Kit Downes and Lucy Railton project, has augmented his usual house band with a host of major talent from the UK and beyond to reinterpret a clutch of cosmic-jazz classics. The versions on offer vary in their boldness, veering further from the original sources and closer to dancefloor-friendly nu-jazz as the album progresses. In the first half, keyboardist Jessica Lauren offers a respectful rendition of Alice Coltrane's solo organ piece ‘Om Supreme,’ with trippy ripples that tap into the original's blues base; Chicagoan saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, of deep-jazz veterans The Pyramids, unfurls an utterly authentic take on Pharoah Sanders’ ecstatic yowl on a joyful reading of ‘Hum Allah Hum Allah Hum Allah’; while London's Collocutor and Finn Peters deepen Joe Henderson's ‘Fire’ with dubby effects and aetheric flute swirls. Flip to the second disc and things take a more radical turn, with versions of Sun Ra's ‘Rocket Number Nine’ and ‘Love In Outer Space’ riding heavy funk and carnival rhythms; and a deep-house tribute to Albert Ayler's ‘Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe’ that's just crying out to be enjoyed while chemically enhanced at a sunrise beach party.

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