Artist: Nicola Conte & Spiritual Galaxy
Album: Let Your Light Shine On
Genre: Acid Jazz, Afrobeat
Label: MPS Records
Released: 2018
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Uhuru Na Umoja (4:48)
- Ogun (5:28)
- Cosmic Peace (4:53)
- Universal Rhythm (5:13)
- Mystic Revelation of the Gods (6:12)
- Let Your Light Shine On (4:59)
- Space Dimensions (6:55)
- Tribes from the Unknown (2:08)
- Me Do Wo (7:22)
- Essence of the Sun (4:48)
- Love Power (4:46)
- Afro Black (5:21)
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Nicola Conte's 2016 full-length, Natural, cut in collaboration with vocalist/songwriter Stefania DiPierro, offered the Italian pair's long-held mutual love affair with Brazilian jazz-funk with an all-star band. Afterwards, Conte's road band -- including longtime collaborator Gianluca Petrella -- delivered a pair of hard-grooving Afro-jazz-inspired 12"s, 2017's "Sun Song"/"Nigeria" and 2018's "African Spirits"/"New World Shuffle," which offered fans a taste of what they were cooking up for Let Your Light Shine On. While Conte has been recording for the revamped Schema for years, this marks his debut for the resurrected MPS, and he's assembled a killer international band that includes his live players -- Petrella, Swedish sax great Magnus Lindgren, and vocalist Bridgette Amofa -- and guests such as American saxophonist Logan Richardson, trumpeter Theo Croker, South African pianist/keyboardist, Nduduzo Makhathini, and vocalists Zara McFarlane, Carolina Bubbico, and Zoe Modica, with a host of percussionists from the African continent.
The set was recorded at Blue Spirits Studio in Milan and Moya Sound Studio in Johannesburg. This date extends the reach of the two singles while remaining rooted in an expressionist aesthetic that the leader/guitarist/composer calls "Cosmic Afro-jazz" and/or "Afro-soul." First single "Cosmic Peace" is introduced by Lindgren's illustrative flute, a Vox organ, rumbling funk bassline, and wah-wah guitar atop a drum kit and layers of hand percussion as Bubbico and Amofah trade verses. Opener "Uhuru Na Umoja" finds both vocalists singing in unison atop spacy yet interwoven guitar lines before Lindgren lays out a Coltrane-esque tenor break. Two other tunes, "Mystic Revelation of the Gods" and "Me Do Wo," also delve into Conte's take on Fela Kuti's signature sound as it meets modal jazz. Speaking of Coltrane, Conte and Spiritual Galaxy attach a rendition of the traditional Afro-Brazilian folk song "Ogun" here that was first cut by the late saxophonist as "Ogunde" on Expression. This version is also modal, but offers a strident declaration of longing, and the approach is more speculative; McFarlane's vocal adds a pillowy, spacy effect to the music's series of questions. The title track is a showcase for Modica; it's an Afro-soul groover with shuffling breaks, a cascading backing chorus, and gauzy Rhodes piano." Official closer "Afro Black" is a stellar piece of progressive Afro-Latin jazz with wafting, droning keyboards adding an otherness to its sublime melody. Another highlight, "Space Dimensions," offers a crystalline piano under Bubbico's sensual, drifting, open alto singing. Virtually every track on this hour-long set illustrates a hyperreal portrait of Conte and Spiritual Galaxy as a canny, well-seasoned unit capable of pulling off anything they wish, while exploring the rest for future excursions.
Review by Thom Jurek