For jazz pianists, the solo album is like a master class. Stanley Cowell passed it with flying colors, and with Musa: Ancestral Streams, he created an album that is considered a landmark for solo piano recordings in jazz. It was first released in 1974 on Strata East, the label Cowell co-founded with trumpeter Charles Tolliver. At the time, solo piano albums were all the rage. Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Mal Waldron and Sun Ra were all in the solo game in the 1970s – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
On Musa: Ancestral Streams, Cowell plays three instruments: an acoustic piano, an electric piano, and a kalimba – an African thumb piano. This choice alone evokes the “ancestral streams” alluded to in the album title and builds a bridge between musical tradition and modernity. It begins with the energetic “Abscretions,” which is somewhere between Thelonious Monk and Abdullah Ibrahim. In “Equipoise,” Cowell displays the introspective lyricism often associated with the piano. And on “Travelin’ Man,” he plays a duet with himself – on kalimba and electric piano. Towards the end of the album, in »Departure No. 1,« Cowell not only flies over the keys at breathtaking speed, but also pushes forward into open spaces. The “Ancestral Streams” have long since arrived in the present.
