Michael White’s Luminous 1971 Debut :: “Spirit Dance” - Impulse!
An ageless atmosphere breeds a ceremonial alphabet with an appetite for sonic sorcery and a brutal, midnight mass at best. Where holy colors ignite a geographical divorce between spine and soul in some rage mirror, that’s both reflective and effortlessly rare, a colossal figure stands humming against the wind. Between the smoke and the glorious sigh of a newborn shadow, he casts an almost middual profile, whose grin glares into a thousand solidarity mornings with chipped teeth and a sword-like tongue. Among the fractal ashes from a fragile fire breathes this ancient scented scene inside the hive mind of both the silent and the freedom fighting futurists.
A precious prophet enamored with the free-falling agencies brought on by vicious visions and scattered quests among screaming skies, Michael White first connected with his instrument of choice, the violin, at just the age of six. Whether it’s a cosmic choice, or some ethereal passion passed down from a ghostly generational gauntlet, White was simply born to play and for that, the world is a better place for it. In the mid 1960s, the young musician joined the John Handy Quintet/Ensemble during their infamous Monterey Jazz Festival performance and recorded three albums with the group before he founded Bay Area legends The Fourth Way towards the end of the decade. Already causing a rip in the spacetime continuum, White’s impeccable ability to bring his instrument and undeniable sorcery into the realm of jazz was simply unheard of at the time. A pioneer, whose summoning of elements like the simple amplification of his instrument, completely shattered the genre, and it has since forever remained influenced by his gorgeous grace. Having participated with some of the greatest musicians and spiritual activists on earth, such as Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy and John Lee Hooker, to name a few, it's White’s solo career that truly embodied what kind of artist he really was outside his notable collaborations.
A complex visionary of his generation, White recorded his masterful debut in 1971 entitled “Spirit Dance” on the Impulse! Label. An incredible body of work that not only conjures the invisible magic of meditation and Buddhist boundaries, but totally introduces classical music into jazz perhaps for the first time on a record. Joined by Ed Kelly (piano), Ray Drummond (bass), Baba Omson (drums/vox/flute) and Makeda and Wanika King (vox), White initiated a splendid class of musicians to help breathe an eternal fire into the album during its brief months in production at the famous Wally Heider Studio in San Francisco. While breaking the spiritual combination in order to unlock the majestic mysteries hidden within “Spirit Dance”, White spoke many cerebral chants with such tracks as “Samba”, “Unlocking The Twelfth House” and the album’s title track, while its aphrodisiac atmosphere houses an ecosystem of culture seen through Bay Area, antique windows. An immediate follow-up that same year saw the release of “Pneuma” and from here the celestial challenges of a dynamical career take off like a volatile vibration out of hell with a catalog that’s both unparalleled and undeniably influential. Resting amongst the greats of his generation, White will be remembered as this prolific prophet of sound and composition with no intention of ever disappearing into the melodic matrix of eternity.
