Top-notch mid-seventies spiritual jazz; steeped in Trane. Championed by Jazzman.
Billy — aka William X, nowadays Khalim Zarif — was a Jazz Messenger. Around the same time as this recording, he was one of the Cosmic Brotherhood supporting Jackie McLean on his New York Calling LP, also for SteepleChase; another lost classic.
Warmly recommended.
From 1977.
‘Music of extreme sophistication yet perfect lucidity… A Zen-like tranquillity pervades this album of duets’ (Richard Williams in Melody Maker).
‘Quite an achievement, balancing fantasy and friction with grace as a fulcrum… calm, lucid, colourful, and captivating’ (Art Lange in Coda).