When I was younger, my friend and I shared a frustration: How are we ever going to read all the books in the world? It's impossible. Nowadays, I feel the same way about the music and no matter the ample number of new records I listen to every week, I can't help but meditate over the fact that there were so many great albums in the past that I will never discover. Luckily, Nova is not one of them.
Steve Reid falls into small, selected group of drummers who dared to compose and release jazz compositions and albums in the United States during the 70s. He was undeservingly in the shadow of Billy Cobham and Alfonso Musin, even though he gave us some hidden funky soul jazz classics. The one I've discovered last month is called Nova.
The album was recorded with relatively unknown artists, but it does not fall behind funk classics. On the contrary, its freestyle approach to form and active reharmonisation give Nova a cerebral character, close to the sound of Art Ensemble, a collective from Chicago. One thing is for sure - Steve's classic is perfectly congruent to the dark ambience of New York's underground of the 70s. In music critic circles, it is widely known as a pearl of "blacksploatation".
What makes this album memorable and sense-provoking? Fascinating repetitive melodies, highest level of play and tension, trumpet of Ahmed Abdul, eerie organ accords of Les Walker and creativity of Steve Reid. My personal favorites are Sixth House and Free Spirits-Unknown. Maybe the level of production is lower when compared to contemporary standards, yet Nova is still stimulating and it gives me enough reasons to recommend it to everyone who religiously follows my throwbacks.
