Black Rhythm Happening

It’s remarkable that not one but two of these wholly singular Eddie Gale albums were captured in a studio setting. Ghetto Music’s follow-up from 1969, Black Rhythm Happening, states in its liner notes that it’s “an extension of that point of view.” BRH expands on that template, drawing from both tent revivals and Sun Ra extravaganzas. Gale played with the interstellar visionary for years, taking cues about stage presentation, floor show, cool outfits, and incantatory, mind-awakening vocals and applying them to his group. The band expanded to a nonet with additional heft from the presence of drummer Elvin Jones and Jimmy Lyons’ alto. Themes veer from gritty street shouts, free lines of poetry, and astrological musings, Gale’s horn gleaming like a golden thread connecting it all.