This release from composer / saxophonist / poet Keith Jafrate, together with a top flight band of Discus Music regulars, is a powerful and beautiful spiritual work. Never rushing, and always deeply involving, this music creates a peaceful yet mindful vibe in the midst of troubled times.

Keith’s liner notes explain how Uroboro’s 2nd double album on discus came into being: “John suggested, during our very first recording session as a quintet, in august 2022, that i should write a pamphlet entitled how to write a bassline, because he liked playing the basslines i’d written. i thought that was a lovely thing to say, even though it was tongue-in-cheek, and we all laughed about it and moved on. but the idea stuck in my mind, and i began writing poems that addressed it, though not in any practical way.....”

Out of this beginning, a whole suite of vocal music has emerged, recorded by quintet, sextet and septet versions of the band. the first half of the release is a group of five songs, which are followed by the title piece the bass speaks, a long narrative in five parts, led by the intertwining voices of faith brackenbury and sylvie rose. As with all the band’s music, keith’s compositions are only the start, and the musicians complete them through improvisation. Somehow, they create a sense of the pieces coming into being as they are played, perfectly formed, with nothing tentative or uncertain about them.

And this is a multi-media release: you get the complete poem-series from which the lyrics were extracted, as a pdf with the download package, and in all formats you get Luca Jafrate’s images, created especially for this album.