Tj Gorton (Pat Les Stache) - "Mtume Umoja Ensemble – Alkebu-Lan - Land Of The Blacks (Live At The East)" (1972)

"Nothing seems to move me more these days than the intensity of spiritual jazz music. During the late sixties and seventies, labels like Strata-East, ESP-Disk', India Navigation Company, Flying Dutchman and many others were capturing the passionate momentum and energy of the civil rights movement through jazz music and releasing some of the best underground records of that creative and explorative era. Before James Mtume was producing dancefloor classics like "Juicy Fruit" the percussionist was a fixture on many spiritual jazz records, adding his Afro-centric conga rhythms to many of the era's best recordings. Their might not be a record that captures the creative nature and powerful intensity of that period's spiritual jazz movement more than his large ensemble led live album Alkebu-Lan: Land of the Blacks. The music on the album comprises everything from post-Coltrane modal modes, heavy-hitting African rhythms, passionate chants, inspired spoken-word poetry, and an overall spiritual jazz energy that can't be matched. Mtume's Alkebu-Lan: Land of the Blacks represents everything that I've grown to love about the expressive freedom and spirituality of jazz music."
Tj Gorton aka Pat Les Stache
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Mtume Umoja Ensemble - Utamu

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