''Spirits Known and Unknown'' , subtitled ''New Vocal Frontiers'', is the debut album by American jazz vocalist and percussionist

Leon Thomas Amos Leon Thomas Jr. (October 4, 1937 – May 8, 1999), known professionally as Leon Thomas, was an American jazz and blues vocalist, born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and known for his bellowing glottal-stop style of free jazz singing in the ...

recorded in 1969 and released by the

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

label.Both Sides Now: Flying Dutchman Label Discography
accessed November 18, 2019Ace Records: album details
accessed November 18, 2019

Reception

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 ...

reviewer Thom Jurek stated: "Leon Thomas' debut solo recording after his tenure with Pharoah Sanders is a fine one. ... Thomas' patented yodel is in fine shape here, displayed alongside his singular lyric style and scat singing trademark... Ultimately, this is among Thomas' finest moments on vinyl, proving his versatility and accessibility to an audience who, for too long already, had associated him too closely with the avant-garde and free jazz". Critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

said "The subtitle, "New Vocal Frontiers," is accurate. Thomas is the only really interesting jazz singer to have appeared in a very long time. He even yodels".

Track listing

All compositions by Leon Thomas except where noted # "The Creator Has a Master Plan (Peace)" (Thomas, Pharoah Sanders) − 4:23 # "One" − 3:07 # "Echoes" − 5:38 # "

Song for My Father ''Song for My Father'' is a 1965 album by the Horace Silver Quintet, released on the Blue Note label in 1965. The album was inspired by a trip that Silver had made to Brazil. The cover artwork features a photograph of Silver's father, John Tav ...

" (

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

) − 5:17 # "Damn Nam (Ain't Goin' to Vietnam)" − 4:42 # "Malcolm's Gone" (Thomas, Sanders) − 8:35 # "Let the Rain Fall On Me" ( Aaron Bell, Carla Huston) − 5:24

Personnel

− vocals, percussion *

Lonnie Liston Smith Lonnie Liston Smith Jr. (born December 28, 1940) is an American jazz, soul, and funk musician who played with such jazz artists as Pharoah Sanders and Miles Davis before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, recording a number of ...

- piano *

Cecil McBee Cecil McBee (born May 19, 1935) is an American jazz bassist. He has recorded as a leader only a handful of times since the 1970s, but has contributed as a sideman to a number of classic jazz albums. Biography Early life and career McBee was b ...

, Richard Davis - bass guitar *

Roy Haynes Roy Owen Haynes (March 13, 1925 – November 12, 2024) was an American jazz drummer. In the 1950s, he was given the nickname "Snap Crackle" for his distinctive snare drum sound and musical vocabulary. He is among the most recorded drummers in ja ...

- drums *Richard Landrum − bongos *Little Rock (pseudonym for

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

) - tenor saxophone *

James Spaulding James Ralph Spaulding Jr. (was born July 30, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United states, Spaulding attended the Chicago Cosmopolitan School of Music. Between 1957 and 1961, he was a member of ...

− alto saxophone

References

{{Authority control Leon Thomas albums 1970 albums Flying Dutchman Records albums Albums produced by Bob Thiele