Harold Land ★★★★
Choma (Burn)
WEWANTSOUNDS. LP
Hard-bop saxophonist’s percussive 1971 outing blurs the lines between modality, post-bop and funk.
A veteran of Clifford Brown/ Max Roach’s hard-bopping quartet and soloist in Gerald Wilson’s orchestra, Land enhanced his leader status via his 1970s partnership with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. The long title track stretches the compositional understanding from predecessor A New Shade Of Blue to the max, with Land’s flailing flute and Hutcherson’s manic marimba offset by keyboard toplines from Land’s son Harold Jnr and Bill Henderson. The album’s heavy low-end, courtesy of double drummers Ndugu and Woody Theus plus bassist Reggie Johnson, is particularly impactful on Black Caucus, a strident comment on then-recent black power gatherings in Washington DC that taps into Miles Davis’s early fusion. Elsewhere, the impressionistic Up And Down and relaxed Our Home reveal a precision to Land’s playing that’s beautifully matched by his counterparts.