''Connecting Spirits'' is an album by American jazz saxophonist

Joseph Jarman Joseph Jarman (September 14, 1937 – January 9, 2019) was an American jazz musician, composer, poet, and Shinshu Buddhist priest. He was one of the first members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and a member of the ...

and pianist

Marilyn Crispell Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of ''The New York Times'' ...

, which was recorded live in 1996 and released on the

Music & Arts Music & Arts is a classical and jazz record label founded in Berkeley, California by Frederick Maroth. It began in 1984 as a classical music label before adding jazz and world music. The catalog includes classical composers and musicians Milton B ...

label.Marilyn Crispell Sessionography by Rick Lopez
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Background

After several years of semi-retirement (his work as a Buddhist priest, poet, and teacher of

aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

taken him away from musical activity), Jarman reemerged to perform with Crispell as a duo for the first time at the

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

designed First Unitarian Society Meeting House in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. They have both already separately joined duets with

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...

and smalls groups with Fred Anderson and the two were in Madison to play together on a recording by another mutual connection, guitarist

Scott Fields Scott Fields (born September 30, 1952Press release from New Arts International for his 2024 album Throws. Some sources list 1960 as his birth year. in Chicago, Illinois) is a guitarist, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for blending mus ...

.Original Liner Notes by Tom Waters In subsequent concerts

Gerry Hemingway Gerry Hemingway (born March 23, 1955) is an American drummer and composer. Hemingway was a member of the Anthony Braxton quartet from 1983 to 1994. He has also performed with Ernst Reijseger, Anthony Davis, Earl Howard, Leo Smith, George E. ...

joined the pair. Crispell and Jarman have both composed and performed tributes to

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

in their careers: Crispell with her album ''For Coltrane'' and Jarman with the piece "Ohnedaruth" on the

Art Ensemble of Chicago The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz group that grew out of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, AACM) in the late 1960s. The ensemble integrates many jaz ...

's '' Phase One''. Here they play Coltrane's composition "Dear Lord".

Reception

In his review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

, Scott Yanow states "Not everything works, but overall this is a stimulating set and it is nice to hear Jarman featured in this setting." ''

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 ...

'' says about Jarman "Like everything he does, it is thoughtful, passionate and somewhat enigmatic, a lateral approach to fairly basic material, and a technically modest exercise in saxophone artistry."

Track listing

# "For Joseph" (

) – 11:33 # "MCPS" (

) – 3:34 # "Structure I" (Crispell/Jarman) – 8:21 # "Upper Reaches" (

) – 5:38 # "Dear Lord" (

) – 9:54 # "Connectivity" (Crispell/Jarman) – 5:22 # "Meditations on a Vow of Compassion" (

) – 14:29

Personnel

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller th ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

References

{{Authority control 1996 live albums 1996 collaborative albums Joseph Jarman live albums Marilyn Crispell live albums Music & Arts live albums