Rudolph Johnson

• Glossy laminated sleeve with OBI strip

A brilliant album from the overlooked reedman Rudolph Johnson – his second session for the Black Jazz label, and even better than the first! There's a soaring, searching quality to the record that Johnson never had before – a way of handling his tenor with a tone that Coltrane would have envied, and which sparkles with some of Rudolph's most soulful 70s contemporaries – like Sonny Fortune or Andrew White!

The tunes are almost all originals, and have this depth of vision that really holds us rapt throughout – a way of digging in and continuing to find new meaning throughout the course of Johnson's solos – with superb rhythm backing from the trio of Kirk Lightsey on piano, Kent Brinkley on bass, and Doug Sides on drums. Lightsey is wonderful too – maybe his best performance on record – and titles include the sublime numbers "The Highest Pleasure", "The Traveler", "Time and Space", and "The Water Bearer

PERSONNEL:

• Kent L. Brinkley - (bass)
• Douglas J. Sides - (drums)
• Kirk Lightsey - (piano)
• Rudolph Johnson - (tenor sax)

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. The Traveler
• A2. Time And Space
• A3. The Highest Pleasure

• SIDE B
• B1. The Water Bearer
• B2. The Second Coming