Percussionist-bandleader-educator Kahil El’Zabar has been a noted elder statesman of the Chicago scene for many years, but in the past decade or so there has been a spike of interest in the back catalogue of his long running Ethnic Heritage Ensemble as well as his current work. This new album picks up powerfully from where 2020‘s America The Beautiful left off, insofar as the music addresses the central issues that face people anywhere in the world as well as in the 'land of the free'.

As the title makes clear, the primary motivation is to increase the degree of empathy and humanity, which is much needed right now, by way of songs that are steeped in the timeless spiritual energy that connects the gospel canon to post-Coltrane laments and to mantras drawn from many forms of eastern and African culture. Much of the material, especially those defined by the needle-like kalimba riffs for which El Z’Bar is known, is like a gently rippling stream in lush, unspoiled nature, a kind of balm for places other than Gilead. At the other end of the spectrum the sly funk of ‘Eddie Harris’, with its strutting contemporary soul jazz, is a danceable joy as well as a fitting tribute to a great Windy City trailblazer. It all amounts to medicine for the world's pain.