Description
**THIS IS A VINYL LP**
Release Date: 2023
Label: Now Again Records
Track List
Side A
- Music Came
- Tunjii
- Straight Life
- North American Idiosyncrasy
Side B
- Milestones
- In My Solitude
- So What
- God Save Us A Song (A Negro Spiritual)
Notes
First ever commercial releases of New Orleans’ legend Alvin Batiste’s Spiritual Jazz albums created with the college band he instructed and led in Baton Rouge – Goes To Africa With Love and Live at The 1971 American College Jazz Festival. Originally given away as souvenirs at Southern University, these albums contains deep Batiste originals and, on Live, are paired with excellent John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard covers. They are some of the most sought after albums of Americas 70s jazz underground. Each album contains extensive booklet detailing Batiste’s life and his time spent honing and recording this remarkable band of young students.
That one of the great Spiritual Jazz albums of the era could be found in duplicate New Orleans thrift store in the 1980s goes a long way in illustrating the lack of acclaim this special and overlooked album maintained, even in a city where the Batiste name is musical royalty. The Southern University albums Alvin Batiste offered the world were novelies, not worthy of serious consideration, a moment captured, but not necessarily worthy of being collected or preserved by anyone not immediately involved in its creation.
That changes now. With the release of the two Southern University albums, Now-Again continues a conversation begun with the late Kashmere Stage Band director Conrad O. Johnson and the issue of his high school students’ music as ‘Texas Thunder Soul,’ and the continued belief that beautiful music created by youth – even under the most adverse circumstances – can always inspire us.
This anthology produced, with an introduction by, Eothen Alapatt
Licensed by The Batiste Family
Liner notes by Bret Sjerven
Mixing, mastering, restoration and remastering by Jason Bitner
Tape restoration and transfers by Dan Johnson for Audio Archiving
Vinyl transfers by Tanner McCrary
Art direction by Errol F. Richardson
Edith Batiste would like to dedicate this album to her husband, the late
Alvin Batiste:
“To the love of my life, my husband, my friend and my soulmate. Let
these few words express who he really is.”
Personnel:
FLUTE
Henry Scott –
Arranger
CLARINET
Arthur Marcal –
Organ and Bell Drum
HARMONICA
Adrian Lanier
VOCALS AND SPECIAL EFFECTS
Ernest Jackson
Edward Perkins
ALTO SAXOPHONES
Vincent York – oboe, section leader
Willie Keyes – arranger
Roy Johnson – arranger
TENOR SAXOPHONES
Kirk Ford (award recipient)
Gerald Anderson
BARITONE SAXOPHONE
Reginald Houston
(Award winner 1970) reciter
TRUMPETS
Raymond Deggs
Andrew “Candy” Gerrard
Kenneth Hardin
Walter Walker
Willie Tucker
Charles Randolph
BUSINESS MANAGERS
John Banks – Alto Saxophone
Kirk Stuart – Arranger, Pianist, Conductor Assistant
Alvin Batiste – Director, Clarinet, Arranger, Composer
PERCUSSION AND PROPERTY MANAGER
Clarence Acox
TROMBONES
Terral Jackson
Lloyd Oby (Award Winner)
Lester Williams – arranger
Clifford Landry
Nelson Jasmin
Nathaniel Brickens
TUBA
Robert Jackson
FRENCH HORNS
Wadie Ervin – arranger
Emanuel Billups
Gable Watkins – piano
PIANO
Henry Butler – Captain
ELECTRIC PIANO
Daryl Jefferson
BASS
Julius Farmer
Gibson Sewell
DRUMS
Herman Jackson
SPECIAL INSTRUMENTS
Emerson Bell
LIBRARIAN
Ernest Nation-trumpet
ANNOUNCER
Charles “Chuck” Siler
