This album features the work of revolutionary jazz artists who created new radical music infused with the values of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Self-determination, economic power and musical freedoms explode as the avant-garde collided with Black Power and Afro-centricity.
Released to coincide with the new book by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker on Soul Jazz Records, this album is jam-packed with super rare, deep jazz from artists many of which all feature heavily in the new book. These include Mary Lou Williams, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, Phil Cohran and many more.
The CD comes with a new essay and some amazing photos relating jazz music to civil rights and the important events that shaped African-American consciousness from the 1960s onwards. The vinyl comes on two super-loud, super-heavy double-album volumes.
Essential!
REVIEWS, FEATURES AND PICTURE GALLERIES:
The Independent
The Guardian