A heavyweight meeting of jazz: Angel Bat Dawid is one of the most important innovators of spiritual jazz in recent years, and the still rather undescribed Naima Nefertari has big time in her blood – she is the niece of David Ornette Cherry. Her Journey To Nabta Playa is a “powerful meditation on memory, mythology, and ancestral science. Honestly” – that’s what they’re all saying now…everyone. If you are interested in stone circles and spiritual connections, please read the liner notes. We continue with music.
And that takes time, which they need. It takes about seven minutes, three tracks, before things start to take shape, before the composers start to formulate something. “Procession of the Equinox”, the fourth track on the album, is the first fully developed piece – and what a piece it is. In true Don Cherry style, the lute emerges spontaneously and in intimate harmony with rattles, piano, clarinet and wooden percussion from the ether, out into the world. This is where the journey begins, and this is where you will be picked up.
After the rather predictable album concept and the first four tracks, which are completely in line with their sources of inspiration, there follows a surprise, an unexpected excess: the synthesizers are unpacked. Suzanne Ciani in the dust of the desert. A refreshing change of style, although it would have benefited from a little more compositional guidance – the piece disintegrates quickly. A healing sound bath follows before Angel Bat Dawid continues what she celebrated on Requiem For Jazz: mixing jazz with trap. Journey To Nabta Playa then unfolds more and more into the surprising, with many great moments.
Ultimately, there are too many ideas. The sound could be more cohesive. While the narrative framework and song titles contribute to the concept, the music lacks beautiful uniformity. Taken together, they just don’t sound cohesive enough to create that final magic.
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