It was long overdue to properly document a live performance by Kahil El’Zabar and press it to vinyl. Nearly 40 years have passed. And yet he is one of those musicians whose full magic unfolds even more vividly in concert, where it becomes deeply felt and unmistakably present.
Let The Spiritu Out: Live at »mu« London is exactly the record you would recommend to someone just beginning to engage with the music of this Chicago jazz legend. This is what Kahil sounds like. This is how it feels. As on most of his albums, moments of feverish intensity alternate with passages of contemplation; as ever, Kahil moves between kalimba, cajón and drums; and as always, the spirits catch up with him – you can hear them jolt through his body, the murmured »mmm«s and »aaah«s slipping out. Add to that the equally charged shouts from the audience after a solo. It simply hits differently.
What we get here, then, is the essence in its purest form. Where the previous Kahil release – Open Me, A Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit – was marked by Jamie Sanders’ violin as its defining additional element, or A Time For Healing by Isaiah Collier on trumpet, this time it is Alex Harding who dominates the proceedings with his mighty baritone saxophone. Which, of course, we love. Especially if you’ve ever seen him play: he has the aura of a deeply relaxed man standing around in slippers in his living room on a Sunday, the smell of dinner already in the air, casually watching the final minutes of an NFL game on TV. Higher consciousness in a tracksuit. And the way he comes in after you’ve had almost ten minutes of George Gershwin’s »Summertime« gently recalibrating your nervous system – yes. Absolutely.
