![]() ![]() Leon Thomas’ second album for Flying Dutchman expanded on his debut offering. The album features some heavy weight musicians including bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis and Pharaoh Sanders and is rightly regarded as one of Thomas’ finest recordings. The song became a hit on FM radio, selling over 100,000 copies, an extraordinary amount for a jazz album by an ostensibly “free” player. It features the visionary track ‘The Creator Has A Master Plan’ co-written with Pharoah Sanders. Thomas’ first album on Flying Dutchman is one of the most important jazz vocal albums of its time. I couldn’t smile, I could hardly open my mouth but I went along anyhow,” said Thomas.Ī raspy, soulful voice that combined yodeling and throaty voice styles and resembled Native American or pygmy chanting, Thomas’ unique vocal style has influenced a huge range of musicians, including James Moody, Tim Buckley and Bobby McFerrin to name a few. Pharoah came by to see me and said: you can’t pull out. Regarded as a pioneer is his own right, his distinctive yodeling style emerged after an accident where he fell and broke his teeth. He sang for Kennedy and Johnson at their inaugural balls. His full deep sound even made it on to Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman. By the end of that decade he had joined Pharoah Sanders’ group, his work on the legendary album The Creator Has A Master Planpropelling Thomas to stardom and a new role as band-leader. His career began in the early ’60s, as a vocalist in the Count Basie Orchestra. Leon Thomas recorded 25 albums, however his earlier work remains unreleased. Every bit as exciting now as it was then, for those who are about to discover Leon Thomas for the first time expect to find moments of familiarity as his work has been sampled by many hip hop artists. The city was spectacularly corrupt and Thomas channelled his experience into a form of the blues coloured by the freedom of the avant garde. At the time there was higher than average unemployment in the area, even higher among the black community. Leon Thomas was born at the height of the great depression into the industrial town of East St Louis in the free state of Illinois. Ultimately, this is among Thomas' finest moments on vinyl, proving his versatility and accessibility to an audience who, for too long already, had associated him too closely with the avant-garde and free jazz.Leon Thomas had one of the most distinctive, powerful voices in modern music. It sends out a visionary album out on a sweet, soulful note. The album closes with Bell and Houston's "Let the Rain Fall on Me." It's a shimmering straight jazz number with a beautiful piano solo by Smith. It's the longest track on the record, and one of the most criminally ignored in Thomas' long career. There's also the deeply moving "Malcolm's Gone," a co-write between Thomas and Sanders that features the latter's gorgeous blowing, hard and true in the middle of the mix, and a wildly spiritual Eastern vibe coming through in the improvisation. Side two is more free from in nature with "Damn Nam," a near rant, but one possessed with melodic vision and harmonic invention with this band. The end of side one reaches into Thomas' past (he sang with everyone from Count Basie to Grant Green and Mary Lou Williams) for a highly original read of Horace Silver's classic "Song for My Father." Thomas imbues the tune with so much emotion, it's a wonder he can keep it under wraps. It's an intense ride and one that sets up the glorious "Echoes." This tune is Thomas at his most spiritual and uplifting, carrying the mysterious drift of his tune entwined with Spaulding's flute and a set of Pan pipes, fluttering in and out of the mix before his wail comes to the fore as a solo. It's a different story on his own "One," with Davis' piano leading the charge and Spaulding blowing through the center of the track, Thomas alternates scatting and his moaning, yodeling, howling, across the lyrics, through them under them and in spite of them. ![]() The set begins with a shorter, more lyrical version of Thomas' signature tune "The Creator Has a Master Plan," with the lyric riding easy and smooth alongside the yodel, which bubbles up only in the refrains. Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark. Teaming with a cast of musicians that includes bassist Cecil McBee, flutist James Spaulding, Roy Haynes, Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, and Sanders (listed here as "Little Rock"), etc. ![]() Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. ![]()
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