Pitchfork

Marion Brown isn't well known outside of jazz circles. Heck, he's not even well known within some jazz circles, but as an active member of the jazz avant-garde from the 1960s through the 80s, his style of playing the alto saxophone had few peers. Where many free-improv players adopt abrasive or aggressive tones, he offered a lyrical, at times even pastoral approach, lending a distinguished voice to recordings with John Coltrane, Steve Lacy, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and Harold Budd, as well as to the two-dozen or so sessions he led for labels like ECM, Impulse! and ESP. It's frankly wonderful that His Name Is Alive's Warn Defever and a group of other musicians, including members of NOMO and Antibalas, have chosen to pay tribute to Brown on the recent Sweet Earth Flower album-- a player and musical innovator of his caliber deserves it. "Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim" was originally the side-long opener of ambient composer Harold Budd's 1978 debut album, Pavilion of Dreams, on which Brown played alto. The band here does it under five minutes, but the way the warm bed of Rhodes piano cushions the searching sax lines and noisy guitar during the long crescendo and brief diminuendo captures the restless reflective spirit of its inspiration.

MP3:> His Name Is Alive: "Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim"
[from Sweet Earth Flower: A Tribute to Marion Brown; out now on High Two]