His Name is Alive, Sweet Earth Flower: a Tribute to Marion Brown

His Name is Alive has released music in a lot of different styles over the years, but new album Sweet Earth Flower breaks new ground for the group: free jazz. On the album, the band plays music by Marion Brown, a somewhat forgotten saxophonist who performed and recorded with John Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Pharaoh Sanders, as well as recording a few albums of his own. Warn Defever, the longtime leader of HNIA, recruited members of Nomo and Antibalas for the recording, and his approach to the music respects the original songs while bringing them up to date.

The music runs the range from Ayleresque anthems to hard bop to African music, all boiled down to their essence. The most distinctive piece here is “Capricorn Moon,” which has a catchy, African-influenced hard-boppish melody. It uses an afrobeat feel which complements the melody perfectly. If it wasn’t conceived of that way, it certainly could be. It’s also a natural for the band, which eats the song up.

Their approach on the studio version of “Sweet Earth Flying” is also interesting. The song opens with the band playing a drone that lasts for the first half of the song and mutates very slowly. It’s more minimal than you hear in most jazz — it’s almost like Tony Conrad, or electronic music. And the feedback in “Bismillahi ‘Rrahmani ‘Rrahim” and distorted guitar in the live “Geechee Recollections” give the music a different feel from most jazz offerings.

You’d ordinarily be worried any time a rock musician takes on jazz (“Jazz Odyssey,” anyone?). Defever’s outsourcing of musicians who are familiar with jazz was wise, however — because of this, the album is as enjoyable as it is heartfelt. It’s a joyous tribute worthy of a visionary jazz artist.