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
Melaza cover

Melaza

Scorch Trio
Rope-A-Dope cover

Rope-A-Dope

Lester Bowie
School Days cover

School Days

Stanley Clarke
Måltid cover

Måltid

Samla Mammas Manna
Axiom cover

Axiom

Christian Scott
The Afterlife cover

The Afterlife

The Comet Is Coming
Good Hope cover

Good Hope

Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Zakir Hussain
Universal Beings cover

Universal Beings

Makaya McCraven
Solstice cover

Solstice

Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, Jon Christensen, Ralph Towner