Brown's clean picking style – honed while playing alongside John Lee Hooker, Bobby Bland, and T-Bone Walker – marinates deliciously with the swinging soul-jazz organ of Gerald Wiggins. The releases continue on December 9 with Chicken Fat, the 1967 Impulse! debut by blues guitarist Mel Brown. A masterpiece of spiritual jazz, the album's title track is an ode to the Egyptian God, Ptah ( the El Daoud meaning 'the beloved'), while many moments on the record can best be described by the Hindu word 'Turiya,' which Coltrane defines in the liner notes as 'a state of consciousness – the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life.' The transcendent Ptah, the El Daoud, recorded in the Coltrane home studio in 1970 and released later that year on Impulse! Records, features an all-star line-up on the four compositions, including Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson(both on tenor sax and alto flute). The hypnotic Ptah, the El Daoud , was the fourth album to bear the pianist and harpist's name released between 1968-70, which also included her joint album, Cosmic Music, partially recorded with John a year before his death. Hailed by All Musicas 'a record of uncommon scope and reach,' Beat is the first official reissue of any Workshop Jazz album.įollowing the death of her husband John Coltrane in 1967, Alice Coltrane continued to forward the musical and spiritual version they set out on together and started to release records on her own as composer and bandleader. Notably, the track ' Soulsphere' was composed by Alice McLeod(erroneously credited as ' McCloud' on the sleeve ), who would blaze a new musical path a few years later as the incomparable Alice Coltrane. Together, they deliver a high-energy set that features tracks written by Brooks, Joe Henderson, and Duke Pearson. Brooks, who served as a sideman for Horace Silver, Yusef Lateef, and Chet Baker, among others, is joined by fellow Detroit natives George Bohannon (trombone) and Hugh Lawson (piano), along with his Horace Silver Quintet bandmates: Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Junior Cook (tenor saxophone), and Eugene Taylor (bass).

Recorded at Motown's legendary Hitsville USA studio for Workshop Jazz – Berry Gordy's short-lived jazz imprint – Beat marks Roy Brooks' debut as a leader and finds the innovative drummer fusing his hard bop roots with a Motor City soul-jazz groove.

Bear family records