Rediscovering The Enormous Social And Spiritual Legacy Of Black Jazz Records

The dawn of the '70s were heady times for keyboardist Doug Carn and drummer Michael Carvin. Both men had recently relocated to Los Angeles from points south; Carn came from Florida, Carvin from Houston. Carn was getting gigs with well-known bands like Nat Adderly and Earth, Wind And Fire, while Carvin was getting work in television bands as a sideman. Most central to the pair, though, was the demo the two had recorded along with Carn's wife, vocalist Jean Carn, that they thought marked the future of jazz. Inspired by three legendary African-Americans – Dr. Martin Luther King, John Coltrane and Muhammad Ali – Carn had written lyrics for music composed by Coltrane, McCoy Tyner and Wayne Shorter, which were then sung by Jean, who imbued the songs with an energetic vibrance. "I felt we were creating a new set of standards," Doug Carn tells NPR Music.

Carn took the demo to some of the prominent jazz labels of the time, like Blue Note,– a cornerstone of the spiritual jazz that Carn was creating. Plus, the sound of Carn's ensemble had a pan-African feel in the rhythms, which echoed a trend in several jazz styles.