John Tchicai – With Strings [LP]

"Spiritual jazz — frank, deep, reaching; no fakery.

Tchicai appears on Ascension and Ayler’s New York Eye And Ear Control; he’s on Witchdoctor’s Son, with Johnny Dyani and Dudu Pukwana, besides landmark recordings with Archie Shepp, including Four For Trane; and his Mohawk LP on Fontana is a five-star affair. Yet still Richard Williams in The Guardian reckoned this ‘wise and lyrical’ album ‘one of his best recordings’.

Here his playing is somewhere new, oscillating between Dolphy and Konitz. John Coxon and Ashley Wales are rivetingly attuned to him, on harpsichord, trumpet, electric guitar, sampling, bowls and percussion. In different ways the music evokes such talismanic recordings as Ayler’s set Swing Low Sweet Spiritual, Jimmy Giuffre’s live performance of Jesus Maria, Trane’s Dear Lord, and George Russell’s Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature.

Originally issued as a CD by Treader in 2005. This first vinyl release is hotly recommended."

Treader, 2018