Sounds from the Ancestors Kenny Garrett

• 1 It’s Time to Come Home 09:48
• 2 Hargrove 05:13
• 3 When the Days Were Different 08:08
• 4 For Art’s Sake 08:05
• 5 What Was That? 08:31
• 6 Soldiers of the Fields / Soldats des Champs 10:55
• 7 Sounds from the Ancestors 07:10
• 8 It’s Time to Come Home (Original) 09:47
• Total Runtime 01:07:37

Info for Sounds from the Ancestors

Sounds from the Ancestors, is a multi-faceted album. The music, however, doesn’t lodge inside the tight confines of the jazz idiom, which is not surprising considering the alto saxophonist and composer acknowledges the likes of Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye as significant touchstones. Similar to how Miles Davis’ seminal LP, On the Corner, subverted its main guiding lights – James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone – then crafted its own unique, polyrhythmic, groove-laden, improv-heavy universe, Sounds from the Ancestors occupies its own space with intellectual clarity, sonic ingenuity and emotional heft.

Composer/saxophonist Kenny Garrett emerged as a distinctive voice on the national scene in 1978 with an undisputed aptitude for emotive melodic phrasing that led him to collaborations with Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey and Miles Davis. With Sounds from the Ancestors, Garrett remembers the spirit of the sounds of African ancestors from church services, recited prayers, songs from the work fields, Yoruban chants and African drums, alongside tributes to Roy Hargrove and two drum pioneers — Art Blakey and Tony Allen — who all looked into the past to influence the future sound and evolution of jazz.

"Garrett's compositional input is often based on two and four bar melodic motifs, which, as on ‘Hargrove’ for example, are repeated over, much like the kind of compositions Miles Davis was coming up with during his triumphant return in the 1980s on pieces like ‘Jean Pierre’. On ‘Hargrove’, the influence of R&B and hip hop is felt rather than explicitly stated, like many of the musical ingredients in Garrett's musical mix. Among the album's highlights are ‘For Art's Sake’, a dedication to Art Blakey, the gospel orientated ‘When Days Were Different’ and the title track. When Garrett was signed to Warner Bros he allowed Asian influences to emerge on a couple of albums, while this album's inspiration is drawn from Afro Cuban jazz, such as ‘It's Time to Come Home’, that opens the album." (Stuart Nicholson, jazzwise.com)

Kenny Garrett, alto saxophone
Guests:
Lenny White, drums
Johnny Mercier, piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ
Maurice Brown, trumpet
Pedrito Martinez, congas, percussion
Dreiser Durruthy, batá
Dwight Trible, vocals
Jean Baylor, vocals
Linny Smith, vocals
Chris Ashley Anthony, vocals
Sheherazade Holman, vocals

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