Jewel in the Lotus/The Struggle continues

ECM Records has just issued two excellent backlist titles on CD for the first time. These are welcome and long-overdue additions to the active ECM catalog.

Bennie Maupin's Jewel In the Lotus features the multi-reedman along with Herbie Hancock, Charles Sullivan, Buster Williams, Frederick Waits, Billie Hart, and Bill Summers. While Maupin, Hancock, and Williams were all members of Hancock's groundbreaking Mwandishi band, the music on this album isn't much like the music produced by that group. In addition, it's not a heck of a lot like other avant-garde music of the day (1974). It is beautiful, otherworldly, and inspirational. I remember being very excited by this recording back when I was a saxophonist interested in the avant-garde—music like this just seemed to open up an entire universe of possibilities. Reacquanting myself with it now, I find that it's incomprehensible that this recording hasn't maintained a higher profile since its original release. Maupin has released some fine recordings over the years, but this has definitely been a significant missing piece of his discography. It's great to have it back in circulation—here's hoping it will continue to inspire future generations of musicians.

Also issued for the first time on CD is Dewey Redman's The Struggle Continues, a 1982 release that helps demonstrate the fact that while he was widely known as an 'outisde' player, he was nonetheless a Texas tenor man who could just as easily play ballads, blues, and other more mainstream jazz sounds. It's a recording that some consider Redman's best. That may or may not be the case (Ear of the Behearer is certainly in the running), but it is certainly an excellent recording that is deserving of a wider hearing (as is Redman's work in general). Redman plays here with Mark Helias, Ed Blackwell, and Charles Eubank, and the music ranges from the Ornette Coleman-ish "Then" to the soulful "Turn Over Baby."

Keep the backlist CD reissues coming, ECM!