Under the Sun cover

Under the Sun

Released

This live album, self-released in 1974 and reissued by the Arista/Freedom label a year later, features a 13-member band that includes core members of BAG like Oliver Lake and Charles “Bobo” Shaw, but there are also guests like trumpeter Lester Bowie from Chicago’s AACM and other unaffiliated players. The single piece they perform, spread across both sides of the LP, is described in the liner notes as a free music symphony “based on an [Afghan] folk melody, ‘Lover’s Desire’”, and it manifests as a funky soul-jazz jam with electric bass and electric piano bolstered by a driving beat. Riding the groove, horn players take high-energy solos, as other members of the ensemble sing, chant, and rattle hand-held percussion instruments. It’s all very 1973, right down to the notation that it was “Produced by the Committee for Universal Justice,” but it’s much more than just a time capsule.

Phil Freeman

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