''Ancestral Song'' is an album by Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, an American jazz band formed in the mid-1970s by percussionist

Kahil El'Zabar Kahil El'Zabar (born Clifton Blackburn; November 11, 1953) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist (mainly a percussionist) and composer. He regularly records for Delmark Records. Life and work El'Zabar was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attend ...

. The album, featuring saxophonist Edward Wilkerson, who joined the group in 1978, and trombonist

Joseph Bowie Joseph Bowie (born October 17, 1953) is an American jazz trombonist and vocalist. The brother of trumpeter Lester Bowie, Joseph is known for leading the jazz-punk group Defunkt and for membership in the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble. Career Bo ...

, the third player in the band since 1986, was recorded live at Fasching Club, Stockholm in 1987 and released on the Swedish Silkheart label.''Ancestral Song''
at Silkheart

Reception

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...

'' states "''Ancestral Song'' was a somewhat modest start, with Bowie's lines offering only cautious counterpoint to Wilkerson's intensities."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Kahil El'Zabar'' # "Papa's Bounce" – 9:35 # "Loose Pocket" – 15:15 # "Ancestral Song" – 13:25 # "Mamma's House" – 10:35 # "Three and a Half" – 8:20 # "Kahil's Blues" – 6:00 :''5 & 6 does not appear on original LP''

Personnel

– sansa,

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, earth-drum,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound produ ...

* Edward Wilkerson –

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

, percussion *

–

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

, percussion

References

{{Authority control 1988 live albums Kahil El'Zabar live albums Silkheart Records live albums