The Black Jazz record label was in business only from 1969 to 1975, but their short-run was intense. Focusing exclusively on African American recording artists who could distill the spirituality and politics of the time into their music, they managed to poach a few alumni of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) as well as Henry Franklin, Calvin Keys, and Walter Bishop Jr. Pianist and organist Doug Carn released four albums for the label between 1971 and 1974, Infant Eyes and Revelation being the first and third respectively.
Both of them are unique snapshots in time. Here, bop horns join forces with groovy organ sounds, set to cosmic lyrics sung with plenty of ’70s studio reverb. Civil Rights struggles and the Vietnam war were threatening to sour the new decade, and the Carn couple sounded desperate to make the Me decade better than the one before. Sure, there are a few dated elements, but they pale in the face of everything else at work.
Suppose you are familiar with Horace Silver’s “Peace”, Wayne Shorter’s “Infant Eyes”, John Coltrane’s “Naima”, McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation”, and Bobby Hutcherson’s “Little B’s Poem”. In that case, you may be confused by the lyrical content you’ll hear when Carn covers them. The “Acknowledgment” movement of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme had some chanting, but not these additions, right? Doug Carn added lyrics to many of these covers or, in Hutcherson’s “Little B’s Poem” and to a greater extent Coltrane’s “Acknowledgment”, altering already existing lyrics. Jean Carn belts out all of them in her near-limitless range. “Peace” is no less peaceful, and “Naima” remains an anthem for the lovestruck: “Queen of the ages / She transcends history’s pages.”
The band surrounding Doug and Jean went through a complete overhaul between 1971 and 1973. On Infant Eyes, we have George Harper on sax and flute, Bob Frazier on trumpet, Al Hall, Jr. on trombone, Black Jazz labelmate Henry Franklin on bass, and Michael Carvin on drums. For Revelation, everything has changed to René McLean on sax, Olu Dara on trumpet, Earl McIntyre on bass trumpet (now that’s interesting), Walter Booker on bass, Buddy Williams on drums, and the addition of guitar provided by Nathan Page.
Trying to parse apart who is the better band is challenging and probably not worth your time anyhow. The level of musicianship on display across the two albums tells us one of two things: either Doug and Jean were very good at finding the right help, or they were very consistent in communicating their vision to the rest of the band. Perhaps it is a combination of the two. If the personnel makes any noticeable changes, it’s that McLean composed Revelation‘s closing number, “Jihad”. Though Doug writes lyrics for Jean to sing, it certainly takes on the feel of collaborative composition.
If we were to attribute the music of Infant Eyes and Revelation to any particular jazzy sub-genre, much of it nestles in the psychedelic region. Of course, Doug and Jean Carn don’t stick to this with laser-like focus. The cover of McCoy Tyner’s “Passion Dance” is played in appropriately late-bop fashion, but “Feel Free” thrusts the sound deep into the future of upbeat funk. “Fatherhood” reaches further afield from bop by giving it a — dare we say it — catchy melody. And if you want religion, then you got religion with “God Is One” and “Power and Glory”. (Coltrane’s beliefs of the divine are amplified on “Acknowledgment.”)
The music of Doug and Jean Carn was a strange beast. It lacked a central focus but played out consistently. Certain sonic choices brand it a product of the ’70s, yet it’s likely to strike the 2021 listener as refreshingly novel. It swung rhythmically as hard as it tripped through the cosmos. Infant Eyes and Revelation rode contradictory rails, and Real Gone Music have done us the decency of rescuing them from potential obscurity. With a bit of luck, they’ll catch on and keep another generation busy trying to untangle the web.