Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few - Lift Every Voice (February 22, 2022 DIVISION 81 RECORDS)

The power of song has connected many people since the dawn of

human existence. The world is full of challenges and the battles for

peace and unity are constant.

This song reflects still the desire of our ancestors.

A desire to unite all people in understanding. This recording was

crafted with the purpose to connect all people through sound. In the

setting of the legendary Van Gelder Studio bringing the sound Jazz

Standards and Spiritual Anthems together with one request, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”.

-Sonny Daze

We decided to go into the Studios of Rudy Van Gelders for a couple of reasons. That's because we were enduring another struggle in black culture/America and "Lift Every Voice" serves as an Ode to our survival. Our never yielding faith and also as a requiem for every person who was Black America and was slain unjustly. Persecuted, prosecuted, and even strip of dignities being seen as men, women, and children. "Lift Every Voice" reminds us to weather the storm and remember that the sun always comes shining through. "God of Our weary years, God of our silent tears" It's a song that speaks to everyone who faces adversity on a daily basis. Our hearts sing with determination and resolve. We will continue forward and beyond until victory is won.

-Isaiah Collier

1. Lift Every Voice 13:07

2. Guidance (Yoruba Soul Mix)

Isaiah Collier - Soprano Sax

Michael Shekwoaga Ode - Drums

Jeremiah Hunt - Bass

Mike King - Piano

Remix by Osunlade of Yoruba Records.

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Fred Jackson Jr - GENRE (December 2021)

In 2020 I was awarded the “New works, Fresh Voices” grant. This allowed me to give a call to people that I’ve worked with in the past or had some sort of musical relationship with. For instance Dana Hall (Dr.) was a college professor of mine when I went back to school to get my masters of music (2012-14). Joshua Ramos and Corey Wilkes whom I’ve worked with since I moved to Chicago in 2001. I’ve been a member in Dee Alexander and Maggie Brown’s bands in the past. Dee and Maggie always use Miguel Dela Cerna. I totally understand why now. This is why I asked him to play on more tracks. Isaiah Collier is a new friend that I met over at Vincent Davis’ house. Once we played together there was instant chemistry. I wanted to capture some of that. There is another recording coming out of this with different songs and musicians. During the beginning of the pandemic and all through the shut downs, I wrote over 30 songs. It’s like the world slowed down enough for me to actually write out things I hear. Now I can’t stop. Not complaining:)

The themes in these songs are centered around inspirations and dedications. All the songs were inspired by people who have left an impression on me. I call it Genre because the letters spell different words when you switch them around.

“Genre” New Album Concept (2021)

Genre / Erneg / Negre / Regne

Interesting to me… but also a genre is a category of artistic composition. This is how I hear, this is my Genre. I tried to blur the lines and tell a story about Love and Family as I reminisced through 2020 - 2021. There are no lines really, only stories and perspectives.

F. Jackson Jr 

1. Expose' interlude (feat. Isaiah Collier, Dana Hall & Fred Jackson Jr) 01:30

2. Fred Jackson Jr - All Night Long (feat. Dee Alexander) 04:30

3. Retort (Return of The Moors) feat. Corey Wilkes (trumpet) 06:38

4. Hemphill (Blues at 4:20 (feat. Miguel Dela Cerna) 06:06

5. Those Were Days (feat. Maggie Brown) 04:37

6. Put A Sock In It (feat. Dana Hall & Fred Jackson Jr) 04:43

7. Expose' (feat. Isaiah Collier ; Dana Hall ; Joshua Ramos ; Fred Jackson Jr) 05:00

8. All Night Long Interlude (feat. Fred Jackson Jr) 00:52

9. Long Story, Shorter (feat. Fred Jackson Jr) 04:27

10. Dane Dane (feat. Dana Hall ; Joshua Ramos) 05:45

Joshua Ramos (bass)

Dana Hall (drums)

Miguel Dela Cerna appears on all tracks except Expose’

Special guest:

Dee Alexander (vocals)

Maggie Brown (vocals)

Corey Wilkes (trumpet)

Isaiah Collier (tenor sax)

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Kahil El'Zabar Quartet - A Time For Healing (November 19, 2021 Spiritmuse Records)

Chicago’s legendary spiritual jazz shaman Kahil El’Zabar returns, leading an enviable ensemble of young masters from his hometown!

Kahil El’Zabar delivers yet another epic double LP’s worth of ancient/future music for the mind, body and soul. From swinging jazz that sings of his Chicago pedigree, to talking drums and soothing spiritual grooves that reconnect Black Classical Music with its African roots.

Multi-percussionist, band-leader, vocalist, composer, conductor and educator, Kahil El’Zabar has been at the forefront of the unceasingly creative avant-garde jazz scene in Chicago and beyond for over 4 decades. Considered the pioneer of spiritual groove and Afrocentric jazz, El’Zabar has recorded & performed with heavyweights such as Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Billy Bang, Lester Bowie, Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, to name a few.

Returning to his natural home on Spiritmuse Records, ‘A Time for Healing’ answers the urgent questions posed by his sold-out ‘America The Beautiful’ album, addressing the state of affairs today whilst calling for a better tomorrow. Hugely successful and universally acclaimed, the album was championed by Pitchfork, the Guardian and Gilles Peterson. As ever, the Chicago legend surrounds himself with the hottest young talent. Sonic scientist, Isaiah Collier joins on saxophone. Following his recent acclaimed album, ‘Cosmic Transitions’ LP, he has been hailed as the new ‘Coltrane’. Suffice to say, he doesn’t disappoint, as El’Zabar leads the ensemble through hypnotic groove after groove, providing Collier with ample space to improvise and uplift, channeling the spiritual sound of Trane and Pharoah.

Following stand-out performances on ‘America The Beautiful’ and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble album, ‘Be Known Ancient/Future/Music’, El’Zabar disciple Corey Wilkes, considered one of best trumpeters in the world today, returns and shines once again. Having also worked with the likes of Roy Hargrove, Kurt Elling, Greg Osby and Marcus Belgrave, and who also filled the considerable shoes of Lester Bowie in The Art Ensemble of Chicago, leads stellar groups of his own, and has received plaudits from NPR and the Chicago Tribune.

Keyboard wizard Justin Dillard, who truly shone on his collaboration with El’Zabar on ‘Spirit Groove’, returns for another stellar performance, steeped in the heritage of Dr. Lonnie Smith and McCoy Tyner. Chicago Tribune puts it this way, “there’s something more to Dillard’s work as well; a quest for new ideas in music, in the manner of his AACM mentors”. His earthy Hammond grooves simultaneously ground and lift the quartet’s sound.

Kahil El’Zabar explores the gamut of Great Black Music in America, tracing its lineage through all the movements that’s flourished in Chicago, from the blues to R&B, soul, gospel, house music, spiritual jazz, and then back to all of its common African roots. This is captured brilliantly on the title track, where kalimba and spirit bowls evoke the ancestors, before the horns commence a yearning refrain, calling for guidance and healing. Then, El’Zabar’s new tomorrow hails its’ arrival on “The Coming Of Spring”, a beautiful swinging number full of joy and hope.

El’Zabar continues to pay homage to his mentors and idols, dedicating one “electrifying” number to tenor legend and electrified sax pioneer “Eddie Harris”. Long undervalued, his footprint nonetheless persists, as world renowned DJs no-less-than Theo Parris turn new audiences on to his avant-garde grooves. Elsewhere, “Resolution”, the central piece of Coltrane’s revered ‘Love Supreme’, is transformed by the quartet, with Dillard providing a fresh low-end groove on Hammond before delivering a stellar solo.

The album closes on a beautiful and hauntingly sparse treatment of Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Centered around El’Zabar’s legendary kalimba playing and a hummed groove. Wilkes, Collier and El’Zabar deliver the standard’s well-travelled melody with unheard depths and heart-wrenching spirituality.

Recorded in December 2020 in Chicago, ‘A Time For Healing’ is not only the answer to the urgent questions asked by El’Zabar’s ‘America the Beautiful’; its’ spiritual and ever probing human journey offers a regenerative opus in the face of growing global anxiety. What the world needs right now is exactly what El’Zabar and his quartet have on offer: A Time for Healing.

1. A Time for Healing

2. Drum Talk (Run’n in the Streets)

3. Urban Shaman

4. Eddie Harris

5. The Coming of Spring

6. Resolution

7. We’ll Get Through This

8. Time IS

9. Summertime

Kahil El'Zabar: drums/ earth drum/ cajon/ kalimba/ voice

Corey Wilkes: trumpet/ spirit bowls/ percussion

Justin Dillard: keyboards/ percussion

Isaiah Collier: tenor and soprano sax/ reeds/ percussion

Art & Art Direction: Nep Sidhu

All compositions by: Kahil El’Zabar except ‘Resolution’ by John Coltrane and ‘Summertime’ by George Gershwin

All arrangements by: Kahil El’Zabar

Recorded at Music Garage Chicago, December 2020

Recording Engineers: Lee Farmer and Sizwe Banzi

Mix Engineer: Lee Farmer

Mastering by: Frank Merritt at The Carvery, London

Videography: Christopher Andrew, Stoptime Live, Chicago

Photography: Katrina Monea & Christopher Andrew, Stoptime Live, Chicago

Liner Notes: Dominic Valvona

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Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few - Cosmic Transitions (May 12, 2021 Division 81 Records)

Transformation is the constant that unfolds infinitely. Those moments when future becomes the past, and the past becomes the present. Cosmic Transitions navigates the challenges and changes of existence leading up to 2020 and beyond.

It is best for anyone who really seeks to take a journey to know that all the steps in between shape the arrival. Isaiah Collier and The Chosen Few etched together an occurrence in this recorded performance of a five-part Suite composed by Collier. To compress all the understanding, lessons, love, and humility into writing would surely be taking the breath from the poetic moment that occurred on September 23rd, 2020. These artists and more importantly, these souls took a journey with the intention of pushing beyond the limitations of the world, critics, and perhaps even their own expectations.

This performance takes place at Van Gelder Studio’s on John Coltrane’s birthday, in the very room where he and so many other compassionate artists pushed beyond what was known and created a new wave in sound. So many steps were taken to achieve this moment of boundless reaching. Music is the Universal Language. The unifying force that bends reality around its subjects, as it services as an instrument of unity. Beyond wherever it is that society is, it is music and love the saves the day. 

Each musician on this recording takes hold of this composition and threads their own path to the purpose of this work of art. That purpose is like most forms of art left to an audience for interpretation to examine their place in life and hopefully feel a connection to something more than the here and now. Cosmic Transition begins in invocation with frequency’s resonating in the same room where so many had stood with hopes and intentions that their art and purpose service a greater understanding.

This Quartet performance finds each musician pushing and exploring the sonics of their individual instruments to expand as one wave, one journey. I implore anyone daring enough to take this journey, that you listen to this experience in its entirety.

Every dimension of the room both on the physical and spiritual plane made this moment possible. Do you hear those few seconds when John walked into the room? Beyond any space and time, beyond the common understanding of life and death, beyond a type of music or crowd, Cosmic Transitions is a doorway for all. For all those who came before and after gratitude for your ear and hopefully your heart. As’e! -Ausar Ra

1. Invocation/Part I. Forgiveness

2. Part II. Humility

3. Part III. Understanding/Part IV. Truth and Guidance

4. Part V. Mercury's Retrograde video

5. Cosmic Transitions

Composed, Written, and Arranged by Isaiah Collier

Soprano and Tenor Sax: Isaiah Collier

Drums: Michael Shekwoaga Ode

Upright Bass: Jeremiah Hunt

Piano: Mike King

Produced By Sonny Daze

Mixed and Mastered by Sean Owens

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