Metropolitan
2000
Soul Of An Angel
About This Album
That Billy Harper's tenor saxophone is one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz is a given. His rich, sonorous post-Coltrane sound is only rivaled by David Murray, and his depth of passionate discourse is matched by no other current day peer. He is also one of the few musician/composer/bandleaders to sport a longtime working ensemble, comprising trumpeter Dr. Eddie Henderson, pianist Francesca Tanksley, bassist Clarence Seay, and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. The music on this recording has religious or spiritual subtexts but not at the expense at the power and glory of what is essentially a style that only Harper possesses: literate, majestic, swelling, heavy, expansive and extensive, slightly on the edge, swinging, and always thoroughly visceral. A slow, serene trumpet solo and powerhouse free tenor starts the 13 1/2 minute "Thine Is the Glory," a prelude for 4/4, modal, soulful swing, the leader establishing his vaunted heat and might from the beginning, free coda and slight return to the melody. Tanksley's pianistics are as lyrical as any à la McCoy Tyner. A 6/8 rhythm buoys short, clipped phrases in "Credence" informing lustrous harmonic lines, while the similarly 6/8-paced "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" is more lilting and all Billy Harper.
Track List (try tracks 1,2 and 4)

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