Ask the Ages cover

Ask the Ages

Released

Guitarist Sonny Sharrock had made a few impressive albums in the late ’60s, but largely fallen off the scene until the mid-’80s, when bassist and producer Bill Laswell brought him back as a member of jazz-noise-rock supergroup Last Exit and helped him reestablish himself as a leader. His final album was this free jazz summit conference with Pharoah Sanders on saxes, Charnett Moffett on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. The pieces have soaring, anthemic melodies, and both Sharrock (multiply overdubbed) and Sanders deliver what fire music fans will be seeking, but the ballad “Who Does She Hope To Be?” is tender and loving.

Phil Freeman

Recommended by

Suggestions
SuperBigmouth cover

SuperBigmouth

Chris Lightcap
Life Time cover

Life Time

Tony Williams
Sixteen Sunsets cover

Sixteen Sunsets

Jane Ira Bloom
Oceans Eat Cities cover

Oceans Eat Cities

Neil Rolnick, Voxare String Quartet, Jennifer Choi Fischer, Kathleen Supove
Simulacrum cover

Simulacrum

John Zorn
The Circle Of Time cover

The Circle Of Time

Amina Claudine Myers Trio
Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa cover

Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa

Gidon Kremer, Keith Jarrett
The Hawk Flies High cover

The Hawk Flies High

Coleman Hawkins
Ascension cover

Ascension

Black Art Jazz Collective