Sonny Simmons & Moksha Samnyasin — Nomadic

Legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Simmons, whose recordings date back to 1963, has injected his oeuvre with a fresh shot of powerful vitality with an intense spiritual album of Middle Eastern and jazz flavored psychedelic jam rock called "Nomadic".  This album exists at a true crossroads between musical worlds, to the point that a listener uninformed as to the band's history would likely have difficulty discerning which culture it originated from.

The songs, two of which exceed 15 minutes in length, owe their structures to 70's kraut and space rock jam albums.  A prolonged dwell on slightly unsettled blues based chords builds anticipatory tension.  The music begins and ends as a thunderous and endless stoner rock groove, propelled by tribal toms on familiar accents, and deliciously melodic picked pentatonic basslines.  The band makes no attempt to introduce new riff ideas or chord progressions, instead droning within a tonal space until it becomes monstrously hypnotic.

In some ways it is restrained or minimalist music; there is a space, traditionally filled by a shredding electric guitar, that is often left intentionally blank on this album.  Fans of similarly stripped back amd bass driven psych rock bands like Melting Euphoria or Ozric Tentacles should feel right at home.  When the space is filled, it's by the lonely tone of the alto sax, an even in some places, the exotic smoothness of an English horn (which sounds much like an oboe).  The solos, while fairly constant throughout the album, are patient, milking maximum juice from each note, and sometimes wailing off into the distance.  This emptiness is a part of the indescribable massiveness to the sound the band creates, which could be compared to Cluster or Acid Mothers Temple.  It's as if the sound has been hurtled to you from across time, and echoes in the largest space physically conceivable.

In an inspired move, that simplification of middle Eastern tonality which permeates all European and American psychedelic rock is recombined here with its original source.  Moksha's scintillating  sitar contributes its metallic twangs and scalar musings as one of the two central lead tones.  The forward thinking spirit of 70's jazz musicians who openly embraced psych rock ideas (in albums like Herbie Hancock's "Sextant") is alive and well in this album, and all the better for the years of rock and jazz history that have passed between.

Free of lyrics and political association, the subject matter of the album is universal and spiritual, seeming to address the journey of life as a whole with titles such as "Help Them Through this World" and "When It Comes, I Don't Fight It".  Seeing the tribal symbolism in the collage style artwork, it's a clear homage to the primitive and transcendent feeling of albums like "Bitches Brew" or "A Love Supreme".  A feeling of travelling or wandering is present in the band's unceasing rhythm.

The only words on the album are some brief banter following the 2nd tune "We are Entering the Place of That", presumably from Simmons himself, in which he can be heard saying in mesmerizing cadence "the art of this, the art of that... chant it like that", then adding "that's what it's all about for me, man".  It sums up the recording well: naturalistic, instinctual, non-verbal.

I am absolutely blown away by this album, and think it would be equally enjoyable to fans of jam rock and 70's jazz.  I am astounded by the vigor, creativity and intensity that Sonny Simmons displays at the age of 82.  This album is quite original, but far from a gimmick; it feels utterly natural in every avenue it explores.  "Nomadic" is pleasing both to the ear and the soul.