Birthright - "Breath Of Life" (1976)

As promised, the second and final album by the Buffalo, NY band Birthright from 1976, once again a private press release on Freelance Records, and apparently I'm not the only one who wants this. This time we've got Greg from Blackclassical to thank for the rip - thanks also to Reza for some details and again to KG from Killergroove for alerting me to this in the first place.

Quite a different album two years on from the previously-posted "Free Spirits" - with not so many free excursions, this is more of a band, with Greg Millar's guitar adding a new layer. Although we're still floating on the spiritual cloud, there's a greater concentration on song structures and overall textures this time around, with vocals from Beverly Simms on some tracks.

Highlight for me is the track "Love", Strata-East-goes-samba with Kenny Barron-ish rhodes from Tom Schuman, with Simms sounding like she's on her first E with her lyrical celebration of nature and happiness. Many other great tracks here too - the communication between saxophonists Joe Ford and Paul Gresham's saxaphones is as strong as ever.

Where are they now ? I talked about Paul Gresham, Joe Ford and Nasar Abadey in the "Free Spirits" post. Of the new people here, keyboardist Tom Schuman and guitarist Greg Millar both sadly moved on to smooth-jazz "pioneers" Spyro Gyra; and vocalist Beverly Simms seemingly vanished into thin air.

Bassist Gerry Eastman released his first solo album "Songbook" in 1996, which featured Birthright members Joe Ford and Nasar Abadey alongside Andy Bey on vocals - Bey fans : check the "Blackaphobia" preview there. Eastman is also a member of Abadey and Ford's "Supernova" band, and Ford appeared on his second solo album "Brown Skin Gal" last year. Hope you enjoy this one!

TRACKLIST

01. ‘Travis’ (5;57)
02. ‘Love’ (4:42)
03. ‘Breath of life’ (5:08)
04. ‘Hope’ (3:59)
05. ‘India’ (6:19)
06. ‘So To Speak’ (7:30)
07. ‘Left foot rag’ (7:39)

MUSICIANS

Nasar Abadey – drums
Paul Gresham - tenor saxaphone
Joe Ford- alto and soprano saxaphone
Beverly Simms - vocals & percussion
Greg Millar – guitar
Tom Schuman - piano & fender rhodes
Gerry Eastman – bass

DETAILS

Freelance FLS-2

POST CREDITS

Vinyl rip by Greg

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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.

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