Released in Fall 2021, Angels Over Oakanda became the latest musical invention of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber and its brainchild and conductor, Greg Tate. It may also well be the denouement — aside from the usual remixes — for the freestlying, experimental funk-jazz collective, because the lauded writer, musician, producer and prominent music critic Tate unexpectedly passed away on December 7.
Angels Over Oakanda is certainly going to be the last BSTAC record that Tate will have seen to release, and in its thirty-nine minutes. It covers so much ground in illuminating the richness of the African-American imprint on music, fermenting jazz, soul, blues, rock and funk into this swampy brew that revels in an improvisation spirit by both individuals and the group. Over two extended tracks and two concise ones, Burnt Sugar leaves it all on the field.
“Angels Over Oakanda” is a one-chord odyssey, chugging along on a hypnotic groove as horns, guitars, electric keyboards and percussion invariably emerge from a hallucinatory haze and recede, following the whims of Tate. The prominent roles of trumpet (Lewis Flip Barnes) and the bass clarinet-like baritone sax (Moist Paula) in this thick funk cauldron can’t help but to suggest Miles circa 1970, and the short, solemn soprano sax/rhythm guitar interlude even recalls producer Teo Macero’s trippy edits of that time period.
“Repatriations of The Midnight Moors” is a remix of a remix put together by Marque Gilmore tha’ Inna•Most, a longtime Burnt Sugar arrangement collaborator and guest drummer. Alongside the crisp, bossa-tech pulse of the beat-and-bass presentation are flute meditations that keep the organic origins of the song intact.
Bassist and Burnt Sugar co-founder Jared Michael Nickerson hatched “Oakanda Overdrive,” and his bubbly, bopping electric bass lines set the song into motion. The momentum is sustained by maximal electric piano (from Leon Gruenbaum) and sax/flute motifs drenched in 70’s-style reverb. Lisala Beatty puts her resolute and supple soul singing over the first three minutes of “Repatriations” using lyrics penned by Tate to create a whole new song, “Lisala Over inna-Oakanda.”
Every Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber project was treated as a major work by Greg Tate, and with Angels Over Oakanda, he leaves intact his legacy of leading a band of boundless imagination and chops. Get it now from Bandcamp.
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