In Detroit, 1971, trombonist
Phil Ranelin and saxophonist
Wendell Harrison started a band, a recording company, and a magazine, and called them
the Tribe. Though the three organizations lasted until 1978,
Ranelin's
Vibes From the Tribe, issued in 1976, was the last of eight records issued by
Tribe/Time Is Now Productions.
P-Vine Records in Japan has issued a handsomely packaged one CD compilation of material selected from the label (there's a facsimile of the magazine included in the box), but
Vibes From the Tribe is the first of the label's actual recordings to be issued in full, with added bonus tracks courtesy of
Ranelin and the
Hefty label.
Tortoise boss
John McEntire has restored the master tapes to their former glory, and added some touches to the unreleased material, with full approval from
Ranelin, which give the music a contemporary feel. Musically, this is not only a solid portrait of Detroit's
jazz scene in the mid-'70s, but is also a definitive portrait of its cultural mentality. While everyone in the nation had written off the city as a wasteland, a space devoid of anything worth celebrating, its residents were in the process of creating some of the most vital
jazz, literature, and art in its history.
Vibes From the Tribe is a wildly diverse collection of tunes to be on a single long-player.
Ranelin and his friends -- among them tenor saxophonist and flutist
Wendell Harrison, pianist
Harold McKinney, trumpeter
Marcus Belgrave, bassist
Ralph Armstrong, percussionists
Bud Spangler and
Barbara Huby, and drummer
George Davidson -- offered a portrait of the city through the
jazz traditions that influenced it in the previous 20 years. Deep, hard
jazz fusion and
funk can be heard in the two versions of the title track (one of them an unreleased eight-track version) and
"Sounds From the Village." While both echo the influence of
Miles' groundbreaking electric band, the identities of these tracks are firmly rooted in a local musical history that includes
Teddy Wilson,
Donald Byrd,
Yusef Lateef,
the Funk Brothers rhythm section at
Motown,
John Lee Hooker, and
George Clinton. There is also the more accessible side of
Detroit jazz, represented here in
"Wife" and
"For the Children," which features plaintive but wondrously expressive vocals by
Ranelin. Each tune swings with a beauty and airiness that were missing from the
jazz of the day -- think of a way more soulful
Ben Sidran and you'll get the picture.
But the heart of the set is in its earliest tune,
Ranelin's first composition written way back in 1966,
"He the One We All Knew." It's played here by an ensemble that included
Ranelin on bass trombone and percussion and members of Detroit's premier vanguard unit,
Griot Galaxy, with the legendary
Faruq Z. Bey on saxophones,
Tariq Samad on drums, and
David Abdul Kahafiz on zeetar, a traditional African griot instrument. Also lending a hand is pianist
Ken Thomas and
Armstrong on bass. The piece begins as a modal workout, with
Bey and
Ranelin taking the first solos. The zeetar creates a drone not unlike a sitar for the rhythm section to build upon; the horn players then find their place in the melody together and light it up, taking it into harmonic territory that appears to surprise even them! The exchanges between
Ranelin's bass trombones and
Bey's soprano and tenor are knotty, intricate, and -- even in the freer moments -- rooted in the deep greasy groove inherent in all of Detroit's music from the era. Over 18 minutes in length, it is a masterpiece of vanguard
jazz, and because of its rhythmic and tonal characteristics, is accessible even to those not interested in the genre. The extended versions of the title track and
"Sounds of the Village" have been made manifestly "more Detroit" by
McEntire. He lengthens the range of the bass and drums and sequences phrases so they line up the way the band did in the studio prior to recording them. They groove slow and dark, with long, intricate melody lines and accented backbeats creating a spaciousness not often heard in
fusion jazz; but then, this isn't
fusion jazz, it's
funk jazz.
Vibes From the Tribe is the sound of a city no one knew existed, a place vibrant with a cultural vision that included everybody.
The Tribe was an organization that was focused on that vision, so much so that it could only last for so long; because it was so busy developing its homegrown identity and getting its talent to voice itself, it didn't have the time -- or the person with the influence -- to carry that vision outside its borders. Having grown up in the city and seen this band over a dozen times, I can say that
the Tribe was one of the most unique and gifted
jazz ensembles that the '70s ever produced. Until
techno, the world didn't know how lucky it was to have a post-
Motown Detroit; the evidence is now available to suggest that it should have been paying attention all along. If
jazz is your thing, then get this. Period. Thanks,
Hefty, for the first in a series of reissues from
the Tribe. ~ Thom Jurek
