The spirituality in John Coltrane’s music was not apparent to many
listeners, especially during his final years, when his performances
became increasingly complex, cacophonous, and long. His spiritual vibe
was made accessible to a wider audience two years following his death
by his stylistic disciple Pharoah Sanders, on the 1969 album
Karma. The song “The Creator Has a Master Plan,” a distillation
by Sanders of Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” with lyrics and vocals about
“peace and happiness for every man” by the previously little-known Leon
Thomas, became a surprise hit. Thomas, who later sang with Santana,
died in 1999.
Much of the essence associated with Coltrane, Sanders, and Thomas
flows through Vallejo drummer Babatunde Lea’s two-disc Umbo
Weti, recorded a year ago at Yoshi’s in Oakland with the
alternately rhapsodic and ferocious Coltrane-inspired tenor saxophonist
Ernie Watts, pianist Patrice Rushen, bassist Gary Brown, and Los
Angeles vocalist Dwight Trible. The CD title is a pygmy word for
yodeling, yet Timble’s yodels are far less developed than were Thomas’.
Trible’s ringing baritone pipes are similar to Thomas’, however, and
his wordless interludes avoid the clichés of scat. The program
consists of six Thomas compositions, some written with Sanders, along
with two by Lea, one by Watts, Coltrane’s “Cousin Mary,” Horace
Silver’s “Song for My Father,” and John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” which
is fitting, as Thomas began his career as a blues shouter with Count
Basie. (Motema)
