Journey To Enlightenment - Carlos Garnet (1974)
ideated from: 1974 was a great year for jazz
What a delightful sidetrip today. Garnet played on a lot of 70s jazz records (including two Miles albums albums appearing here). But he led this band on some wild and hyper-joyous spiritual jazz full of funky basslines and Caribbean flavor.
There are lyrics, which are… plaintive and to-the-point, sung mostly by Garnet himself, whose voice is… we’ll say “unadorned”. But it’s extremely hard to hear this offering of praise and not be moved to a heartfelt smile.
I had a really rough morning and needed something to mark that it was over, as well as offering thanks that things had worked out as we’d hoped. So if it had caught me in a more cynical mood, I might have laughed this guileless record of joyousness and sunshine. As it is, though, I hear the outspoken gratitude and optimism, and I really needed it.
