KALAPARUSHA MAURICE McINTYRE – Forces And Feelings (LP-1972)

Label: Delmark Records – DS-425
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: US Released: 1972
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded November 11, 1970 at Sound Studios, Inc.
Engineer – Stu Black
Photography By – Charles Stevens
Cover Design By – Zbigniew Jastrzebski

Kalaparusha Ahra Difda is a secret master of the tenor saxophone: Ignored by most, but a musical voice of value (if only the market system consistently recognized excellence). Kalaparusha's second Delmark session, with a group he called The Light, offers sunshine to all willing to emerge from hiding. Step into the light...

Recorded in late 1970, this is McIntyre's second release for the Delmark label. Much like his first effort, Humility in Light of the Creator, Forces and Feelings projects a spiritual tone. While it is occasionally more relaxed than his debut, that's not to say this is McIntyre's mellow disc -- far from it. Forces and Feelings has much in common with the otherworldly vibration Albert Ayler experimented with on his Impulse! date Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe, especially when comparing the vocals of Rita Omolokun with Mary Maria, Ayler's girlfriend/vocalist. It was during this period that McIntyre changed his name to Kalaparusha Ahra Difda, leading many to the conclusion that his uncompromising spirituality was keeping him from playing more gigs, especially those in nightclubs. McIntyre's band for this session was called the Light and featured AACM member Fred Hopkins on bass, Sarnie Garrett on electric guitar, Wesley Tyus on drums, and the vocals of Omolokun. The vinyl cover shot of the ocean with the sun rising (or setting) conveys the divine nature of the music inside the jacket. Considering the lack of recordings made by this underrated tenor saxophonist, any of his LP's recommended.
_ Review by AL CAMPBELL

Saxophonist Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre's recording sounds like a time-unbound, spiritual tour de force of black cultural history. He features vocalist Rita Omolokun (Worford) on spoken and soared vocals and plays fractured tenor saxophone throughout this key recording from the Chicago jazz avant-garde. The music rumbles across Fred Hopkins's bass and Sarnie Garnett's guitar with a careful precision before Wesley Tyus's forceful drumming carries the impact to the gut level. McIntyre plays an expressive tenor, bowing to tonal studies resembling so many straight-ahead jazzers and then ripping through the channels of regularity with what seems a hypnotic, blind storm of wind and thunder.
_ By ANDREW BARTLETT



If you find it, buy this album!