Description
YHWH is Love, the sophomore release from Jahari Massamba Unit checks off a number of boxes for what would generally be considered a jazz album: improvisation, syncopation, and polyrhythms. But it upholds Roland Kirk’s embrace of “black classical music” in the sense that it carries the genre’s traditions and ever-innovative essence (especially that of Alice Coltrane and Don Cherry).
The unconventional timing of the drum fills, improvisational grooves, and playing with an instrument’s perceived limits (who would’ve thought to use celebratory bells and whistles as a fitting foreground for a mellow piano?) are all in tune with jazz’s openness to experimentation.