the khan jamal creative arts ensemble: drum dance to the motherland

Eremite presents the definitive vinyl edition of the most legendary private press underground jazz album of the 1970s. There's not another record on the planet that sounds even remotely like vibraphonist Khan Jamal's eccentric, one-of-a-kind masterpiece, Drum Dance to the Motherland. In its improbable fusion of free jazz expressionism, black psychedelia, and full-on dub production techniques, Drum Dance remains a bracingly powerful outsider statement forty-five years after it was recorded live at the Catacombs Club in Philadelphia, 1972. Comparisons to Sun Ra, King Tubby, Phil Cohran and BYG/Actuel merely hint at the cosmic otherness conjured by The Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble and by sound engineer Mario Falana's real-time enhancements. Originally issued by Jamal in 1973 in an edition of three hundred copies on Dogtown records, Drum Dance to the Motherland was effectively a myth until Eremite's 2005 CD reissue. Eremite's LP edition has been a long time coming. With the master tapes long vanished, the audio was transferred on the pneumatic Rockport table at Sony Music's 54th street studio from a minty copy of the original LP, manually de-clicked, and remastered on Sony's vintage outboard tube EQs by Ben Young and Andreas K. Myer. The LP is pressed on premium audiophile quality vinyl by RTI from a Kevin Gray lacquer. Alan Sherry at Siwa Studios screenprinted by hand every component of the package: the screenprinted labels and heavyweight Stoughton laserdisc jackets reproduce exactly the artwork of the original Dogtown release. A screenprinted insert with Ed Hazell's detailed telling of Drum Dance's incredible history and eremite's signature retro-audiophile screenprinted dust sleeves are unique to this edition. 999 copies. Personnel: Khan Jamal - vibraphone, marimba, clarinet; Alex Ellison - drums and African percussion; Mario Falana - sound effects; Dwight James - drums, glockenspiel, clarinet; Billy Mills - fender bass, double bass; Monette Sudler - guitar, percussion.