Zoh Amba—the Tennessee-born New York-based baritone saxophonist who »mak[es] hugely profound, wildly uplifting music« (Guardian)—releases »Sun«. The album offers a collection of nine compositions—three of them solo —that blur the line between performance and process, where both the music and the act of capturing it unfold in real time, guided in part by improvisational recording techniques. As bandleader, Amba navigates the edges of an improvisational delta, where spiritual jazz and free folk emerge not as separate genres, but as tributaries of the same current, each flowing from a shared belief in music as a sacred force.

The decision to release »Sun« on Smalltown Supersound was born from a common connection to the late German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, who was both a spiritual mentor to Amba and released several records on the label. While the album is rooted in American folk traditions, it’s Brötzmann’s fearless spirit— itself an immense historical catalyst for European free jazz – that runs like a current through the ensemble’s musical collaboration and its experimental recording techniques.

For Amba however, it was important that the ensemble – consisting of Caroline Morton (bass), Lex Korton (piano), Miguel Marcel Russel (percussion) – establish deeper musical connection before the recording process took place: »We spent days just playing together, and I was trying to mentally take notes of what naturally wanted to exist in this band – before giving instructions or handing out sheet music. I wanted to see where we were all standing in life, right at that moment. From there, I started carving out the process with them,« she explains. The result is a sound that oscillates between deep modal lamentation and blasts of rapture, which is apparent on today’s single and album opener, »Fruit Gathering.« The song’s first notes emerge from an elegiacally bowed double bass as a glimpse of a new dawn.

On »Sun«, the morphing life cycle of each composition becomes a kind of paradigm for the ensemble, who are constantly navigating the drastic shifts in landscape – tempo, melody, key, rhythm – within a single track. It’s a tendency that also occurs within the album’s larger narrative. In a genre that is defined by risk-taking, Amba shines in venturing further out. Sun is free-form acoustic music with the energy of an electrical storm – music sanctified in the current.

The heart sits and takes in all wakes of the universe. A blessing to discover sound and how it enters the body and is shared to all. I feel the sound wraps in and out of my heart and pours through the saxophone. Searching, discovering the Creator. I pray this music reaches into your heart, goes all the way to the deepest place and blossoms up the most beautiful gardens of joy and love, curiosity. I am forever grateful to meet souls such as Lex, Miguel, and Caroline. Through these recordings I poured my heart out with them, it was an endless search and journey together, all together. I write these words now sitting in Ventura assisting my hero, sacred soul, Mr. Wadada Leo Smith. When I first heard his sound it pierced through my heart and kept going until I couldn’t see. Feeling that our souls are made up of this entire universe but yet beyond it. The story of the Salt Doll merging into the sea. Asking the heart questions until the mind stops. Heart takes its course. That feeling merges to silent sweetness. That is this journey. Reflecting and feeling my heart overpour. Knowing this is only the beginning of the journey and what was captured on this recording will never exist again and the next song, Mother willing, will be closer and closer to the center of the heart. I thank God each day for a life in sound and I’ll be searching on this pathway till the very end.

My heart sits in the deep light dear Peter Brotzmann shared to this universe. I hear his spirit each morning. Love to my dear grandmother, gabby fluke-mogul, Jim White, Regina Greene, and Noland, Steph & David, Wobbly. For keeping my heart in this world.

This music is only a reflection of a soul that is ever changing and trying to reach beyond the sun.

-Jai Ma