Lloyd McNeill Quartet “Asha” (1969, Soul Jazz Records)
via SOTU: New edition of this very rare deep spiritual jazz album, the debut release from flautist Lloyd McNeill released on his private-press Asha Record label and recorded in Washington, DC in 1969 (originally only 500 copies were ever made).
First reissued on Soul Jazz Records’ Universal Sound sub-label in 2011 (long deleted) and now available newly digitally remastered on Soul Jazz Records main label. Lloyd McNeill is a multidisciplinary artist – a painter who lived in Paris in 1965 and was a friend of Picasso, a musician who has worked with Nina Simone, Nana Vasconceles, Ron Carter, Cecil McBee and many more and a music anthropologist, poet and teacher.
In the 1960s he was involved in the civil-rights movement and produced music for ballet, paintings and installations. His music mixes jazz with Latin, Brazilian and African rhythms that McNeill learnt was studying anthropology in his travels through much of Africa and Brazil (where he joined with Dom Salvador, Paulinho da Viola, Paulo Maura and Martinho da Vila).
The album comes with extensive sleeve notes and interview with Lloyd McNeill as well as exclusive photos and text. Vinyl is heavyweight vinyl pressing + download code limited to 1000 worldwide.
Lloyd McNeill features on two earlier Soul Jazz releases, ‘New Thing’ and ‘Freedom, Rhythm and Sound”. Soul Jazz Records have also recently reissued Lloyd McNeill’s stunning ‘Washington Suite’ album recorded in 1970.
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