Gary Bartz's I've Known Rivers flows from the confluence of four major streams of late-20th century African-American music/culture: the spiritualism and modality strongly associated with John Coltrane's monumental, devotional suite A Love Supreme; the spectrum of electric sounds and bristling funk-rock rhythms of Miles Davis's heraldic Bitches Brew; the new funk directions (words and music), kinetic syncopations, and of the popular singer-songwriters Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, and James Brown; and the dramatically expanding Afrocentric consciousness during the Vietnam War era. On the evening of July 7, 1973 ex-Miles Davis sideman Bartz (b. 1940) and Ntu Troop, whose rhythm section's swing and funk backings were equally masterful, performed superlatively, ripping through an uninterrupted, nearly 80-minute set at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Long out-of-print but now available for the first time on CD, I've Known Rivers should at last receive its due as one of the high-water marks from its era.

Nommo--The Majick Song, Sifa Zote, Jujuman, Bertha Baptist, Don't Fight That Feeling, Mama's Soul, I've Known Rivers, The Warrior's Song, Uhuru Sasa, Dr. Follow's Dance, Peace and Love

with Hubert Eaves, Stafford James, Howard King