Label: Reading Group

2022年の傑作に続く2CDボリュームのピアノ・ソロ!!1938年テネシー州出身、アメリカにて詩人、小説家、エッセイスト、作詞家、劇作家として活動する偉人Ishmael Reed。2022年に同レーベルが手がけた[The Hands Of Grace]は最早名盤として流通していますが、今回はオークランドの自宅にて過去5年間に渡り作曲/演奏/録音した、ピアノ・スタディ、スケッチ録音、即興演奏、瞑想楽曲を収めた作品集を2CDフォーマットで発表。ジャズ・ベースの音源集ではあるものの、Charles MingusやCarman Mooreにも繋がるインストゥルメンタル。









Double CD in jewel case with liner notes by Ishmael Reed.

"Great accomplishment, many full-time musicians don't accomplish this. Very proud of your perseverance and wit."
- David Murray

Every Time I Feel the Spirit is a collection of piano studies, epistles, sketches, improvisations, and meditations composed, performed, and recorded by the legendary writer Ishmael Reed at his home in Oakland, California, over the past five years. After 2022's The Hands of Grace (recently re-released on vinyl by All Night Flight), we are thrilled to collaborate with Reed again to bring this extraordinarily precious music to light. Two and a half hours of music spanning two discs, Every Time I Feel the Spirit is, in Ishmael's words, "a hidden spiritual landscape, and had I not lived this long life, this region would have remained undiscovered."

Like The Hands of Grace, these pieces range from citational irony to arresting sincerity, but here we have the sense of looking through the composer's sketchbook, developing the ideas as they are being traced out of the piano by the "spirit" that compels Ishmael to play. Despite its seeming solitude as a self-recorded solo piano set, this music is full of other people, from the other luminaries of American literature to whom many of the pieces are dedicated, to the intimate connections of Reed's family, including his wife Carla, his children, and his niece Marquel, whose image graces the cover.

No other album so gracefully articulates the spirit of Reading Group. It reminds me why I love music.
- Derek / RG