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A Time For Healing

by Kahil El'Zabar Quartet

supported by
Arnaud Vandyck
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Arnaud Vandyck Heard this song live and we've been singing the melody for a week! Favorite track: The Coming of Spring.
giventofly87
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giventofly87 The whole record is a beautiful, subtle statement of healing and peace in a time where it's desperately needed. The opening track for me is a go-to for open-ended meditation and peacefulness. It's an album that does what it says on the box, and an incredible jazz record. Favorite track: A Time for Healing.
topsycat
topsycat thumbnail
topsycat rhythm is like the pulse of life energy and the melodies various landscapes of the soul. What a fantastic influencer is this Kalil El`Zabar Quartett. Yeah !
Favorite track: A Time for Healing.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    2023 Repress of this phenomenal album! Deluxe 2xLP 180g audiophile classic black vinyl in deep pocket reverse matte laminate cardboard with original artwork and insert by Nep Sidhu

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  • 180g 2xLP Audiophile Classic Black Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Deluxe 2xLP 180g audiophile classic black vinyl in deep pocket reverse cardboard with original artwork and insert

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Time For Healing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Limited edition 180g 2xLP Audiophile Classic Black Vinyl w/ insert
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Deluxe 2xLP 180g audiophile classic black vinyl in deep pocket reverse matte laminate cardboard with original artwork and insert

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Time For Healing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Deluxe, glossy 4panel digipac w/ original artwork
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of A Time For Healing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Urban Shaman 10:42
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Resolution 08:29
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Time IS 10:51
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Summertime 04:27

about

Chicago’s legendary spiritual jazz shaman Kahil El’Zabar returns, leading an enviable ensemble of young masters from his hometown!

Kahil El’Zabar delivers yet another epic double LP’s worth of ancient/future music for the mind, body and soul. From swinging jazz that sings of his Chicago pedigree, to talking drums and soothing spiritual grooves that reconnect Black Classical Music with its African roots.

Multi-percussionist, band-leader, vocalist, composer, conductor and educator, Kahil El’Zabar has been at the forefront of the unceasingly creative avant-garde jazz scene in Chicago and beyond for over 4 decades. Considered the pioneer of spiritual groove and Afrocentric jazz, El’Zabar has recorded & performed with heavyweights such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Billy Bang, Lester Bowie, Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, to name a few.

Returning to his natural home on Spiritmuse Records, ‘A Time for Healing’ answers the urgent questions posed by his sold-out ‘America The Beautiful’ album, addressing the state of affairs today whilst calling for a better tomorrow. Hugely successful and universally acclaimed, the album was championed by Pitchfork, the Guardian and Gilles Peterson. As ever, the Chicago legend surrounds himself with the hottest young talent. Sonic scientist, Isaiah Collier joins on saxophone. Following his recent acclaimed album, ‘Cosmic Transitions’ LP, he has been hailed as the new ‘Coltrane’. Suffice to say, he doesn’t disappoint, as El’Zabar leads the ensemble through hypnotic groove after groove, providing Collier with ample space to improvise and uplift, channeling the spiritual sound of Trane and Pharoah.

Following stand-out performances on ‘America The Beautiful’ and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble album, ‘Be Known Ancient/Future/Music’, El’Zabar disciple Corey Wilkes, considered one of best trumpeters in the world today, returns and shines once again. Having also worked with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Kurt Elling, Greg Osby and Marcus Belgrave, and who also filled the considerable shoes of Lester Bowie in The Art Ensemble of Chicago, leads stellar groups of his own, and has received plaudits from NPR and the Chicago Tribune.

Keyboard wizard Justin Dillard, who truly shone on his collaboration with El’Zabar on ‘Spirit Groove’, returns for another stellar performance, steeped in the heritage of Dr. Lonnie Smith and McCoy Tyner. Chicago Tribune puts it this way, “there’s something more to Dillard’s work as well; a quest for new ideas in music, in the manner of his AACM mentors”. His earthy Hammond grooves simultaneously ground and lift the quartet’s sound.

Kahil El’Zabar explores the gamut of Great Black Music in America, tracing its lineage through all the movements that’s flourished in Chicago, from the blues to R&B, soul, gospel, house music, spiritual jazz, and then back to all of its common African roots. This is captured brilliantly on the title track, where kalimba and spirit bowls evoke the ancestors, before the horns commence a yearning refrain, calling for guidance and healing. Then, El’Zabar’s new tomorrow hails its’ arrival on “The Coming Of Spring”, a beautiful swinging number full of joy and hope.

El’Zabar continues to pay homage to his mentors and idols, dedicating one “electrifying” number to tenor legend and electrified sax pioneer “Eddie Harris”. Long undervalued, his footprint nonetheless persists, as world renowned DJs no-less-than Theo Parris turn new audiences on to his avant-garde grooves. Elsewhere, “Resolution”, the central piece of Coltrane’s revered ‘Love Supreme’, is transformed by the quartet, with Dillard providing a fresh low-end groove on Hammond before delivering a stellar solo.

The album closes on a beautiful and hauntingly sparse treatment of Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Centered around El’Zabar’s legendary kalimba playing and a hummed groove. Wilkes, Collier and El’Zabar deliver the standard’s well-travelled melody with unheard depths and heart-wrenching spirituality.

Recorded in December 2020 in Chicago, ‘A Time For Healing’ is not only the answer to the urgent questions asked by El’Zabar’s ‘America the Beautiful’; its’ spiritual and ever probing human journey offers a regenerative opus in the face of growing global anxiety. What the world needs right now is exactly what El’Zabar and his quartet have on offer: A Time for Healing.


SPIRITMUSE RECORDS
MUSIC FOR THE SPIRIT 🔴

credits

released February 4, 2022

Kahil El'Zabar: drums/ earth drum/ cajon/ kalimba/ voice
Corey Wilkes: trumpet/ spirit bowls/ percussion
Justin Dillard: keyboards/ percussion
Isaiah Collier: tenor and soprano sax/ reeds/ percussion

Art & Art Direction: Nep Sidhu

All compositions by: Kahil El’Zabar except ‘Resolution’ by John Coltrane and ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin
All arrangements by: Kahil El’Zabar

Recorded at Music Garage Chicago, December 2020
Recording Engineers: Lee Farmer and Sizwe Banzi
Mix Engineer: Lee Farmer
Mastering by: Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London
Videography: Christopher Andrew, Stoptime Live, Chicago
Photography: Katrina Monea & Christopher Andrew, Stoptime Live, Chicago
Liner Notes: Dominic Valvona

© 2021-2022 Spiritmuse Records
MUSIC FOR THE SPIRIT

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Kahil El'Zabar Chicago, Illinois

Legendary multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar has been at the forefront of the spiritual jazz, avant-garde scene since the 70s. He's performed with legends Nina Simone, Dizzy Gillespie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Cannonball Adderley. Kahil El’Zabar’s latest two essential albums on Spiritmuse have rightfully re-established him worldwide as an authentic, leading artist in spiritual jazz and Groove. ... more

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