Monday, April 13, 2009

Birthright - "Free Spirits" (1974)




'Nano' excerpt


'Tangerine (For Muhammed)' excerpt


'Free Spirits' excerpt

An amazing share for this blog from REZA. I fell in love with a single track at the ever-wonderful Killer Groove Music Library, and started asking around for the album, thinking that the going price on this thing made such a request a bit of a stab in the dark. Immediately, Reza stepped forward with a 320kbps rip for this blog - and their second album, which will soon follow. I think I owe you about ten now sir - beers, albums, whatever it takes :)

This is a fantastic private-press spiritual jazz album coming from Buffalo, New York in 1974 on the Freelance Records imprint. Having absorbed electric Miles, Coltrane and Sanders; saxaphonists Joe Ford (alto, soprano) and Paul Gresham (tenor) came up with an organic interplay between their instruments that makes for a great album. I'll let the clips "speak" today.

Joe Ford had aleady played with Ken McIntyre and the Mingus band, and went on after Birthright to play on McCoy Tyner albums like "Focal Point" and "The Greeting". Both Paul Gresham and drummer/percussionist Nasara Abadey had played with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Bl*ck J*zz's Doug Carn. After the two Birthright albums on Freelance Records, Gresham went on to release a solo album called "Every Sound We Make" as the label's third and seemingly final release, then seemed to disappear off the map. Adabey went to to a wide variety of session and live work, and has more recently formed a band called Supernova with Joe Ford, who has also established a solo career.

Keyboardist Onaje Allan Gumbs is already well known at this blog, click his name for another five great albums as a starter. Bassist Jim Kurzdorfer went off to more commercial pop-jazz pastures with Spyro Gyra; and pianist Jimmy Manuel is also difficult to track down after this, though he may have passed away last year.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I have, and please thank Reza in the comments.

TRACKLIST 

01. 'Nano' (11:44)
02. 'Do You Know Where Your Children Are?' (1:30)
03. 'Tangerine (For Muhammed)' (7:29)
04. 'Jowcol (To The Life, Memory And Spirit Of John Coltrane)' (11:02)
05. 'Free Spirits' (10:33)

All tracks written by Joe Ford and Paul Gresham 


MUSICIANS


Joe Ford - alto and soprano saxophone; electric piano on Tr. 5.
Paul Gresham - tenor saxaphone
Nasar Abadey - drums, percussion
Jim Kurzdorfer - electric and acoustic bass
Onaje Allen Gumbs - electric piano; acoustic piano Tr.4
Jimmy Manuel - acoustic piano Tr 1-3


 DETAILS

Freelance Records FS-1


POST CREDITS

Vinyl rip by Reza.
Other links in this post go to : Killer Groove Music Library, Call it Anything, Taringa, and Elemento Musical. Please thank these people if you visit, and respect their work and time.



41 comments:

el goog said...

Wow, amazing!! Thank you reza and Simon, KG too. can't wait!!

jazzobsessive said...

Looking forward to this-great stuff.

Thank you & respect Simon,reza & KG.

007fletch said...

Unbelievable. Thank you.

Solomon said...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

damn good, thanks to you and the reza

johnv said...

Awesome! Thanks Reza and Simon.

JTF said...

Thanks Reza!

Robert said...

thanks guys,Reza in particular...
I can't wait to listen to this!!

Neilantman said...

Thank you Simon + Reza...Looking forward to the second album as well

fathead said...

Thanks Guys, this is great
Fathead

Arkadin said...

Is there a spiritual jazz album you DON'T have, Reza? ;-) Thanks a lot to you both!

ish said...

Downloaded, now to listen. Thanks Simon & Reza. Back later with my review. :)

Morganized said...

dopeness, danke.

fusionfan said...

i can't seem to d/l this, is the link still working?, thanks!,

Simon666 said...

hi cabinboy -
I just tested again, and the link seems to be OK ?

kzk said...

I've always wanted to try this. thank you very much.

corvimax said...

VERY beatiful
thanks

taro nombei said...

a bit slow on the downtake here... but well worth the wait.
thanks indeed for this - and you too of course, Reza,
TN

swboy said...

Very nice
Thanks Reza
Always great to hear Onaje
He hasn't recorded enough.

Anonymous said...

amazing!!! i like freelance records. have you heard Diom Futa already? anyway thanks a lot both of you :)

fritz the cat said...

thanks

catacaldos said...

Superb share.Thanx a lot

unitstructure said...

Music just as powerful as any coming out of NYC at that time. Thanks. Joe Ford went on to make some strong recordings with Andy and Jerry Gonzalez in the 90's that are well worth checking out.

Sweet Jesus said...

Yet another great share, thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Reza and Simon. Big ups Simon on the great blog. Peace

JasonG said...

Really a cool find. Thanks for sharing...

wightdj said...

Thanks for this find. Superb.

Anonymous said...

It's well worth digging for the Paul Gresham album too. Killer version of "Nature Boy". Very haunting and very beautiful.

Simon666 said...

Would love to hear that, any chance of an upload, anonymous ? :)

troods said...

Reza, Simon, I love you guys. Listened to the exerpts and they took me somewhere. Got a month vacation coming up and the music is going to be part of it. Your generosity as always is so appreciated!

HCM said...

I downloaded this a while ago and forgot to say thanks... Man, what an album this is!! And so hard to find, im soooooo glad that you guys made it possible for us to hear it!! Does anyone know why Sadaka´s - premonition and Birthright´s free spirits have the same cover??

Simon666 said...

Hi Hoochie Coochie Man, thanks for your comments here and elsewhere.
Now, apparently this cover was one of a stock set that certain private press companies would offer. I've actualy seen it used a few more times, but can't think where ...

Alumni said...

Paul Gresham is my uncle... no kidding i was just speaking to him at my dads house earlier today. I have original copies of this album for sale. email me if interested. Pastelboutique@gmail.com

By the wat Paul says thank you so much for all of the great comments. He really appreciates the love!

Simon666 said...

Thanks for your comment David, your uncle and Joe Ford are just fantastic on this album ...

J Reid said...

peace & love

Anonymous said...

great!! thank you so much

Anonymous said...

thanks!!! mediafire link still up nov 2011.

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon,

Link still active Nov '13 - wahey!

Dave Aquarius

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

Many thanks

Garu said...

Thanks for your great blog which I have used as a reference for many years. Very happy to find this album is still available after all this time.

Simon666 said...

Thanks Lisa, glad you found it :)
Are you aware of his solo album from 1978?
https://www.discogs.com/release/4783594-Paul-Gresham-Every-Sound-We-Make