Universal Sound of America

Universal Sound of America

Soul Jazz Records

Tracklisting

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Universal Sounds of America features music from radical Afro-American Jazz musicians in the USA in the 1970's. At a time when commercial jazz music was revolving around whether it would sound good in an Elevator at low volume, a number of Jazz musicians were seeking different musical paths. Self Determination, Creative Development, Community and Education were more important to these musicians than economic wealth, fame and stardom. Artists such as The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Sun Ra developed around communal groups. The Art Ensemble, for instance , came out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) founded in 1965 by Muhal Richard Abrams in Chicago. Many musicians followed the lead of Sun Ra in starting their own labels to release their own material. Artists such as Byron Morris in Washington and Steve Reid in New York The Tribe label in Detroit formed around a group of musicians (Wendell Harrison, Phil Ranelin, Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and others) also produced a regular magazine focussed on the Detroit community. The Strata- East label in New York independantly released many self-financed records by the cream of creative Jazz musicians in the 70's. Many of these musicians were the spiritual descendants of John Coltrane. None more so than Pharoah Sanders , who had been a member of John Coltrane's group in the sixties. Sun Ra whose 20 minute "Space is the Place" is featured on this CD is also a major influence on many of these artists and indeed many of them at one time or another were involved with the Sun Ra group. Universal Sounds of America describes this period in time and features all the artists mentioned. "Check out these masters of the universe and be blissfully astonished. Indispensable" THE GUARDIAN (CD of the Week) "Truly inspirational" THE INDEPENDENT "Consume and be awestruck. Astonishing compilation of Radical jazz from the 70's" ECHOES (CD of the Month) "Sun Ra's 'Space is the Place' is without doubt one of the greatest pieces of experimental music ever to grace this planet" DJ MAGAZINE "A mighty album of difficult to obtain, deeply expansive music" STRAIGHT NO CHASER "The freakout of astro jazz with the switched on pulse time of seventies funk. Excellent Astro-Jazz compilation" WIRE (Wire Winner) "Soul Jazz boldly go where few have gone before. Blunted beyond the dreams of Cypress Hill, Techno without the looping machinery" NME "A fascinating compilation. Seminal" MUSICWEEK "Independent and proudly experimental" THE FACE