A jazz record that regularly sells for $500 (and sometimes much more) on the secondary market? The Guardian calls it the "grinning punk cousin to Miles Davis' brutal and brilliant Bitches Brew." It's got to peak your interest. And with only 3 songs (albeit, average song length is 13 minutes), that's $166 per song (but hey, digging follows esoteric economics, not this rigid stuff). You can thirst your curiosity with this first time, official reissue on Superior Viaduct. Clocking in at 18+ minutes, "Nation Time" is the centerpiece here. It's everything you want a spiritual, not-too-free (think Impulse-era Archie Shepp), multi-movement Opus. Madlib even gives a shoutout to the track on one of his Medicine Shows. For a more structured sound funk edge, check "Shakey Jake" a 13 minute heater with a bedrock groove. It ends with "Scorpio's Dance", a "modest" 8 minute spiritual exercise. Recorded live on December 12 and 13, 1970 at Chicago Hall at Vassar College Urban Center for Black Studies ("Shakey Jake" was recorded in the studio the following day). 

• printed liner note insert
• music label: Superior Viaduct 2019

reviewed by the mgmnt 6/2014