Of course there were some great albums released during jazz-not-jazz’ hiatus. One of them is Fertile Ground’s Black Is… album released on Blackout Studios/Counterpoint Records.
Who owns Fertile Ground’s Spiritual War or Sesaons Change album will know that they are one of the best bands out there that offer a great melange of soul, jazz, poetry, reagge and dub. In their music you find echos of soul’s music icons like Stevie, Marvin, Donny, or Roberta.
All songs are lovingly sung by vocalist extraordinaire Navasha Daya adding even more depth and spirituality to the music. Listen for Spiritual World with its Yoruban prayer for example (”Cause down here is something different/ Adding experiences to my soul/ It may be viewed just like a prison/ But it’s necessary for my growth/ In this schoolplace world we’re living/ Our personality we must control/ We must keep a higher vision/ Remembering our purpose and our role“)
Live In The Light, the first single, offers what we all loved about 70s soul music. A funky upbeat groove and lyrics that dare to voice an opinion (”So let’s stop the war, stop poor, stop for peace/ Stop the bomb, stop the bush, stop the beast/ Stop for love, stop the lies, stop the fights/ Stop the deaths, stop the hate, live the light“).
And the good things continue with songs like Another Day, the spoken words entry An Artist Prayer or one of my favourites Yellow Daisies, although I could virtually name every song on Black Is… as favourite song. They are all great and if you’ve missed this album on its release in autumn 2004 make sure to get it now.
For more infos visit blackoutstudios.com and counterpointrecords.co.uk.
2005/23/6 at 18:43
[…] Strange Fruit Nina Simone: Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair Fertile Ground: Black Is Tashan: Blackman SOB: Black Butterfly (Organized […]