Forces Of Nature by Azar Lawrence from Bridge Into The New Age

Featuring 180-gram vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings (QRP) from lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tapes and housed in a one-pocket old-school style tip-on jacket, this is the first-ever vinyl reissue of Azar Lawrence’s masterful statement, Bridge Into The New Age. An essential addition to any jazz collection, this landmark recording proudly displays its ancestral roots as a forbearer of the current jazz revival as embodied by Kamasi Washington and the West Coast Get Down. A transcendent and powerful statement. ALBUM OVERVIEW:   An absolute masterwork from Azar Lawrence (tenor sax) recorded during a fertile period for adventurous jazz, Bridge Into The New Age is an expansive, forward-leaning, spiritual-tinged outlier in the Prestige Records catalog for its ambitious embrace of a large lineup, including heavyweights Julian Priester (tb), Woody Shaw (trumpet), Ray Straughter and Hadley Caliman (flute), Arthur Blythe (alto sax), Joe Bonner (piano), Clint Houston and John Heard (bass), Billy Hart (drums), Leon “Ndugu” Chancler, Mtume, Guillerme Franco, and Kenneth Nash (percussion), Woody Murray (vibraphone), and the inimitable Jean Carn (vocals). Sonically the sound is close to a recording from the Black Jazz label – richly textured, conversational, and powerfully intimate, with knotty unison lines bending and twisting around Carn’s supple yet strident delivery, especially on the title track. Elsewhere, the group stretches out and explores the ethereal, free-flowing world of “The Beautiful and Omnipresent Love,” and propels itself mightily through the modal-funk burner, “Forces of Nature.” Long out of print, this landmark statement by saxophonist Azar Lawrence recorded in 1974 at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA, proudly displays its ancestral roots as a forbearer of the current jazz revival as embodied by Kamasi Washington and the West Coast Get Down. TRACK LISTING: A1. Bridge Into The New Age A2. Fatisha A3. Warriors Of Peace B1. Forces Of Nature B2. The Beautiful And Omnipresent Love AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Into-New-Azar-Lawrence/dp/B001CRGS4C SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Yr6ybkgMgNuBJ2UslIwW3 ITUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/bridge-into-the-new-age/id1300749632