Artist: Various
Album: John Sinclair Presents Detroit Artists Workshop
Genre: Avant-Garde Jazz, Hard Bop, Jazz-Funk, Soul Jazz
Label: Strut
Released: 2022
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
01. John Sinclair Introduction/Yusef Lateef - Happyology (4:06)
02. Donald Byrd - Christo Redentor (5:52)
03. Donald Byrd - Blackjack (4:18)
04. Detroit Contemporary 4 - Effi (8:42)
05. Detroit Contemporary 4 - The Promise (8:45)
06. Detroit Contemporary 4 - Three Flowers (8:06)
07. Bennie Maupin Quartet - Water Torture (8:57)
08. Ron English - Bees (10:16)
09. Teddy Harris - Passion Dance (7:35)
10. Lyman Woodard - Deja Vu (5:55)
11. Lyman Woodard Organisation - Help Me Get Away (5:00)
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In 1964, poet John Sinclair and jazz trumpeter Charles Moore co-founded the Detroit Artists Workshop in response to the Motor City's then-lack of cultural vitality. With like-minded friends, they fostered a loose-knit, egalitarian community in the Wayne State University neighborhood. They offered classes in the history of jazz and rehearsals and jam sessions, writing seminars and studies in modern poetics, filmmaking workshops and screenings, visual art and photography exhibits, and the organization's own Work Magazine. According to Sinclair and poet/filmmaker Robin Eichle, they wanted "...to pull together the active and potential artists in the Detroit area into a working, cooperative community of human beings that would offer to each individual an open, supportive artistic environment." In context, they were prophetic: The Artists Workshop directly and indirectly influenced the environment, establishing ground that nurtured the internationally celebrated Cass Corridor artists, Kenny Cox's Strata label, the Tribe organization, the explosive free garage rock experiments of the MC5 (initially managed by Sinclair), numerous private literary presses and publications, the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, and an intermittent concert//residency series that hosted local players and national acts including Charles Mingus and Sun Ra. Strut's issue of John Sinclair Presents Detroit Artists Workshop is the result of a deep dive into his massive archives, housed at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. It commences with Sinclair on the radio introducing a live 1978 appearance by native Detroiter Donald Byrd as he speaks over Yusef Lateef's "Happyology" (from 1957's seminal, Detroit-recorded Jazz for the Thinker). Byrd's band and a jazz orchestra deliver excellent versions of "Cristo Redentor" and "Blackjack."
A treasure trove of unissued music follows. Moore's Detroit Contemporary 4 (that included guitarist Ron English and pianist Stanley Cowell) offer the startling modal waltz "Effi" and the Latinized spiritual hard bop of "The Promise." With an unidentified quartet, Moore delivers the lyrical, straight-head hard bop of "Three Flowers." Saxophonist and Detroit native Bennie Maupin delivers a bumping, electrified live read of "Water Torture" from 1977's Slow Traffic to the Right. Guitarist English contributes the cinematic "Bees" (from the recently unearthed Fish Feet) and finds him in the company of Moore, Cox, organist Lyman Woodard, and saxophonist Larry Nozero. The inclusion of "Passion Dance" by Motown pianist/arranger/music director Teddy Harris is a set highlight, wedding spiritual soul-jazz, gospel, and funk with soaring horns, bumping basslines, and angelic voices. The Lyman Woodard Organization closes the set with two smoking live jams. "Deja Vu" expertly weaves Caribbean and Detroit funk, while "Help Me Get Away" connects English's steamy, psychedelic guitar to Woodard's meaty organ grooves atop frenetic percussion. The digital version includes "Cheeba," a ten-minute live bonus cut by Woodard fusing funky salsa and Detroit jazz. The set is wonderfully annotated with essays from Sinclair and Eichle, and journalist/critic Herb Boyd. While the sound quality here isn't pristine, it is wonderful considering these aged sources. The music is, in places, revelatory. Hopefully, more volumes are forthcoming. Essential.
Review by Thom Jurek