Dogan AD

Description

Julius Hemphill’s first album, *Dogon A.D.* (1972), was self-produced for his Mbari label and released with a magnificent black-and-white cover. A very handcrafted work. The label name, printed in large letters on the lower edge, as if it were the band name. This quartet album brings together Hemphill on alto saxophone and flute, Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Phillip Wilson on drums — a classic jazz lineup with rhythm section and instrumental section, but with a decidedly original sound. The long title track is a major epic work of the new jazz of the era. Among its remarkable features, this piece draws on Wilson’s schizophrenic experience, former member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and first drummer of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, to turn a rhythm in 11/8 into an irresistible funk explosion. For fourteen and a half minutes, Hemphill builds an almost continuous solo, while his spiritual brother, Wadud, makes the cello vibrate with a deep blues soul, at once raw and incantatory, almost mantra-like. The piece sounds both right and wrong, the theme having its own flavor, with rustic dissonances and contrary motion between the brass and the strings. Above all, it takes its time, in no hurry to go anywhere, but rather for an idyllic stroll.- John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)