Description

2LP Vinyl – STRUT239LP

When DJ and promoter Jimmy Gray and saxophonist James “Plunky” Branch founded their Black Fire label in 1975, they opened up a space for musicians to freely express the full spiritual dimensions of their music. One musician who took this initiative was vibraphonist Lon Moshe. Moshe & The Southern Freedom Arkestra’s album Love Is Where The Spirit Lies is a gem of a recording from a time in which so many jazz greats were using the music to call on the power of a higher force.

The album opens with “Prayer for Saude,” a heavy and somber spoken-word piece that calls for Black self-actualization through a revived connection to our ancestral ways. Urged on by the band’s free yet measured playing, poet Ngoma Ya Uhuru says, “We face East to the creator, our old-time religions lost in centuries past.” Whether it’s the driving post-bop abstraction of “Low Ghost” or the dreamy standout “Ballad For Bobby Hutcherson,” Love Is Where The Spirit Lies is equally powerful when considered as a challenging collection of music and a reverent offering of spirit.