UNITY / BYRON MORRIS – Blow Thru Your Mind (E.P.I. Rec - EPI-02 / LP-1974)

Label: E.P.I. Records – EPI-02

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1974

Style: Free Improvisation, Modal

Recorded on December 30, 1973, at Minot Sound Studios, White Plains, NY.

Cover [Cover Art] – John Blazeski

Photos By – Gerald Wise

Photography By [Photo Consult] – Peter Hurd

Layout – Betty Morris

Mixed By – Byron Morris, Ron Carran

Producer – Byron Morris, Gerald Wise

Matrix / Runout (Side A): EPI-02-A

Matrix / Runout (Side B): EPI-02-B

A1 - Kitty Bey ............................................................................................. 12:25

A2 - Ether ..................................................................................................... 6:20

B1 - Reunion .............................................................................................. 11:40

B2 - Transcendental Lullaby ........................................................................ 7:00

Personnel:

Byron Morris – baritone saxophone, alto saxophone

Vince McEwan – trumpet

Mike Kull – piano

Jay Clayton – vocals

Milton Suggs – bass

Abdush Shahid – drums

Tony Waters – percussion, congas, maracas

The music on this LP is excellent. A major departure from the dissonant free jazz that Morris explored on 1969's Unity session, Blow Thru Your Mind contains modal post-bop that is melodic and relatively accessible. This is a very spiritual album; a lot of spirituality goes into the solos of Morris and trumpeter Vincent McEwan, as well as the ethereal vocals of female singer Jay Clayton (who is featured on tracks like "Ether," "Reunion," and "Transcendental Lullaby"). Blow Thru Your Mind is enthusiastically recommended to anyone who is seriously into modal jazz...

Byron Morris and Unity released Blow Through Your Mind originally in the US in 1974. 
The LP was recorded a year earlier at Minot Sound Studios in White Plains, New York. This studio was a favorite with many independent Jazz groups at this time -- for instance, many recordings for the independent Strata East Records, co-owned by Stanley Cowell and Charles Tolliver, were made here. Unity was formed with similar values, aims and objectives of many similar groups at the time, as the name suggests. Uniquely, it managed to match the musical and spiritual searching of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Ornette Coleman alongside an equally experimental New York art-music dimension that was brought into the group by vocalist Jay Clayton, who has performed with, amongst many others, Steve Reich. With bassist Milton Suggs having played in Sun Ra's Arkestra, and Byron Morris studied with Ornette Coleman and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, it is possible to see the path that makes up 'Kitty Bey', twelve minutes of musical intensity, that sounds like nothing else ever recorded. 
Kitty Bey was originally featured on Universal Sounds Of America on Soul Jazz. Originally released on Unity's own EPI label and distributed by hand, this record has remained an underground classic recording for over 25 years?......

Note:

Blow Thru Your Mind, which first came out on vinyl in 1974, was EPI's second release. In 2002, Blow Thru Your Mind and Morris' next album, Vibrations, Themes and Serenades, were both reissued on CD by Céleste Music (a Japanese label). But those Céleste reissues weren't the first time that Morris' '70s recordings had been heard on CD; in 1994, Morris combined material from Blow Thru Your Mind and Vibrations.

Unfortunately, all of these re-releases have long ago are out-of-print.

Review by Alex Henderson

If you find it, buy this album!