Nicola Conte & Spiritual Galaxy – Let Your Light Shine On

By George Moraitis

Label:	MPS Records – 0212748MS1
Format:	2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Country:	Germany
Released:	18 May 2018
Genre:	Jazz
Style:	Soul-Jazz

 

If you enjoy music that unites different cultures, styles and influences together in one magical experience then you are in for a treat! One of the best features of Let Your Light Shine On is how it plucks out musical fibres from throughout the world and knits them together into a groovy, soulful tapestry.

I had this record in my collection but I hadn’t heard it for a while. Then we received an email from a gentleman who was looking at our recommended music and suggested that this album should be included (thank you Dragan, this review is dedicated to you).

This is the first album by renown Italian guitarist, bandleader, DJ, composer and producer Nicola Conte for Germany’s acclaimed jazz label MPS Records. Recorded at the Blue Spirits Studio in Conte’s hometown of Bari (Italy) and in the Moya Sound Studio Johannesburg (South Africa), Conte has brought with him a grandiose ensemble of stars which includes trumpeter Theo Croker, saxophonists Logan Richardson and Magnus Lindgren and British singer Zara McFarlane with several local musicians jumping into the Johannesburg sessions.

This colourfully talented collection of artists shine their collective light on American, African, European and intergalactic soul, weaving instrumental and vocal threads into a powerfully peaceful state of music and mind. “You could call it spiritual or cosmic Afro-jazz. I could also agree with calling it Afro-soul,” Conte suggests. To me, this album feels like an impassioned, groovy heartbeat of the African landscape through a jazz lens.

Born in 1964, this innovative jazz revivalist formed the artist collective ‘Fez’ in the early ‘90’s in his native city of Bari, produced jazz and modern electronic-oriented Bossa Nova and recorded film music. From the beginning he was open to sounds of every persuation and seemed to search for the transcendent aspect to music. Conte expressed “We should not be hemmed in by materialism. We need new perspectives!” and “I’m interested in the Afrocentric approach that such artists as John Coltrane, and such labels as Strata-East carried forward in the sixties and seventies”.

The aforementioned Dragan informed me that Conte is in fact not only an audiophile, but he’s a serious record collector and his shows on Mixcloud are legendary as is his knowledge of music, particularly African American spiritual jazz. I feel that this fascinating aspect to this artist is evident in the way this album ebbs and flows, confident within its own skin.

The opening “Uhuru Na Umoja” quickly demonstrates this band’s familiarity with traditional African culture, as their keyboards, guitars, bass and drums all link up and lock down with the vocals in masterful unity. It finds both vocalists singing in unison atop spacey yet interwoven guitar lines before Lindgren lays out a Coltrane-esque tenor break.

The exquisite “Ogun” is masterfully sung by the talented Zara McFarlane. This song just oozes soul and conveys an ancient longing, unquenched thirst for fulfilment.

“Cosmic Peace” is introduced by Lindgren’s illustrative flute, a Vox organ, rumbling funk bassline, and wah-wah guitar atop a drum kit and layers of hand percussion as Bubbico and Amofah trade verses. This song brings some serious groove to proceedings.

“Mystic Revelation of the Gods” is an instrumental that pulses Afro-beats while the flute hovers above like a hummingbird overseeing the horn ensemble which cycles around the drummer’s playful rhythm. Along with “Me Do Wo”, Conte’s unique laid-back definition of Afrobeat is evident, with superb solos by Croker, Lindgren, and Richardson.

“Let your light shine on” is an Afro-soul groover with shuffling breaks, a cascading backing chorus, and gauzy Rhodes piano. It establishes a sultry spiritual groove, simply but soulfully repeating the tempered “Let your light shine on…Let us live in peace…” like a modern mantra. There is something genuinely yet indescribably beautiful about this music.

“Space Dimensions” offers a sparkling piano under Bubbico’s sensual, drifting, expansive alto singing and opens a window into the musical alternative universe of Sun Ra. The ethereal female vocal drifts in and out like a mist over a serene lake and the spacey lyrics dance around the rhythmic structures. The follow-on two-minute drum jam “Tribes from the Unknown” extend Spiritual Galaxy’s connection to Sun Ra’s musical collective Arkestra.

The closing track “Afro Black” is a wonderful piece of progressive Afro-Latin jazz with wafting, droning keyboards adding a de-coupled feeling to the inherent melody.

Nicola Conte has cast a spell of cosmic jazz into a seamless tonal masterpiece, without restricting his players’ freedom and leaving them open to the influences of the diverse cultures. “Everyone should be able to express themselves freely,” Conte says.

This is a rare example where a perfect blend of ingredients come together at exactly the right place and time to create art that is seemingly greater than the sum of its parts. The music has a mystical vibe and is engaging on both a primal and spiritual level. Despite the musical mastery going on here, I feel that it’s the singers (Bridgette Amofah, Carolina Bubbico, Zara McFarlane & Zoe Modica) who really make this album a success.

So what does Conte mean with his references to “Light”? What really inspired this work?
“We are connected by a higher force. I don’t want to sound like a hippie, but perhaps the light comes out of the universe. At the same time, it also comes out of ourselves.”

Track listing

1. Uhuru Na Umoja
2. Ogun
3. Cosmic Peace
4. Universal Rhythm
5. Mystic Revelation Of The Gods
6. Let Your Light Shine On
7. Space Dimensions
8. Tribes From The Unknown
9. Me Do Wo
10. Essence Of The Sun
11. Love Power
12. Afro Black

Personnel

Nicola Conte: Guitars
Bridgette Amofah: Lead and backing vocals (1, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12)
Carolina Bussico: Lead and backing vocals (1, 3, 7, 12)
Zara McFarlane: Lead and backing vocals (2)
Zoe Modica: Lead and backing vocals (6, 10)
Gianluca Petrella: Trombone, Mini Moog
Logan Richardson: Alto saxophone
Magnus Lindgren: Tenor saxophone, flutes
Theo Croker: Trumpet
Pietro Lussu: Piano. Vox organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, Fender Rhodes
Luca Alemanno: Double bass, electric bass
Teppo Makynen: Drums, percussion
Abdissa Assefa: Congas, percussion
Tommaso Cappellato: Drums (5)
Nduduzo Makhathini: Drums
Fred Rhodes: Drums
Tumi Mogorossi: Drums
Tlale Kakhene: Percussion (8)
Seby Burgio: Organ (9, 11)
Mike Rubini: Baritone Saxophone (9)