We be All Africans

African-American jazz musicians were undoubtedly the pioneers of what's become known as world music. In the 1950s, Dizzy Gillespie's music and Cuban rhythm became inseparable and, as the youngest beboppers turned towards to modal jazz and beyond, the African musicians in New York became some of the most popular people for them to play with. But alto sax player and bandleader Idris Ackamoor was raised not in the Big Apple but in Chicago in the 50s and 60s; there he absorbed the pioneering DNA that exploratory jazz warriors like Sun Ra, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and the Art Ensemble of Chicago bestowed upon the city's musical community. He studied under piano god Cecil Taylor, then travelled to Europe in the 70s where he formed the Pyramids, who then played their way across Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia before heading to Oakland and the Bay area.

And you can hear all those elements in this deliciously funky album, recorded last year, after the band reassembled to restart their cosmic odyssey. The musicianship is extraordinary; the musical ingredients seem to come from an infinite list; the rhythms invade your whole body; while the horns reference Fela Kuti in the baritone sax and Pharoah Sanders in the high blowing of Ackamoor himself. And the tunes are just one sublime composition after another: be they stomping free-for-alls, anthemic ballads or intricate rhythmic workouts.