parisonic
An absolutely beautiful album thats been on my wishlist for a long time. Very happy for this re-issue and looking forward to receiving the vinyl copy.
Newly remastered limited pressing with new artwork from Tom Henry. Includes 8 page booklet with a detailed new interview with Majors by Prince Language.
Includes unlimited streaming of Yoka Boka (For Us All)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Invisible City Editions reissues a highly sought after and impossibly rare 1986 private-press spiritual jazz LP from Washington D.C. harpist Jeff Majors. Majors was a devoted personal student of Alice Coltrane’s for three years as a teenager, taking harp and spiritual instruction at her home in the Bay Area just before she established her renowned ashram in Huntington, California. Following his tutelage with Coltrane, he returned to the East Coast, joining Sun Ra acolyte Brother Ah's ensemble The Sounds Of Awareness, playing on their classic spiritual jazz LP Key To Nowhere.
Inspired by a trip to West Africa’s Gambia, For Us All (Yoka Boka) and its title track finds Majors coming fully into his own as an artist, fusing the lofty sensibilities he absorbed from the cosmic jazz masters Coltrane and Brother Ah with an accessible sonic palette drawn from the synth-driven electronic sounds of 1980’s soul music, as well as traditional African instruments. Each song on this album is an inspired vision of the personal and the devotional via the harp’s universal glistening tones, shimmering synths, LinnDrum machine and African percussion. The album opener “Yasmeen” is a pulsing, arpeggiated journey that is genre-defying and absolutely transcendent in its glissando-driven momentum, setting the stage for the album’s unique nexus of sounds, all led by the refined virtuosity of Majors’ harp playing. The rest of the album’s originals and covers (check the sublime arrangement of the Gershwins’ “Summertime”) are equally as unique and compelling.
credits
released December 24, 2018
Musicians:
JEFF MAJORS: “Hanifah” (the Harp),
Moog-bass, Spirit Box, Mbira
James King: Bass (except Yoka Boka)
Mike Bowie: Bass (Yoka Boka)
Ysea Barnwell: Violin
Naser Abadey: Drums
Sais Kamalidin: Flute
Mamadi Nyasuma: Percussion (Yoka Boka)
Voices:
Foluke Bady-Siby: lead vocal
Bheti Yasmeen Willians: lead vocal
Candy Gibson & Babara Brown: VOCAL (Room 400)
THE CHILDREN: Timothy Gaskins, Tabitha
Gaskins, Titus Gaskins, Jason Stribling,
Zephaniah Stribling, Escharon Monroe,
Mia Burell, Amina Taylor, and Stephen Taylor
Produced & Arranged by Jeff Majors
Engineered by Richard Sales & Jeff Majors
Recorded & Mixed at Glass Wing Studios
Mastering by Wouter Brandenberg
Lacquer cut at Dubplates & Mastering by Mike Grinser
Manufactured By MPO
Artwork by Tom Henry
Reissue Executive Producer: Gary Abugan
Special thanks to Tako Reyenga
supported by 27 fans who also own “Yoka Boka (For Us All)”
Angel,
I heard your interview with Jason Woodbury on Aquarium Drunkard's "Transmissions" podcast today. It was truly remarkable and touched my heart. I bought this album immediately afterward and am so grateful to you for this nourishing music in these strange, trying days. I hope I can time my next trip to Chicago to be able to see you perform live. Thank you! Michael Feltes