Audiopile Review: Khan Jamal’s 1974 album, Give The Vibes Some, gets a first ever reissue courtesy of the Italian imprint Eating Standing, a label who have already reissued fully licensed pressings of wildly rare jazz albums from Noah Howard, Sahib Shihab, and Clarence Peters. Arriving shortly after Jamal’s 1972 entrance into the niche world of private press jazz, Gives the Vibes Some would be the third in an unspoken trilogy that marked an especially creative period for the vibraphonist. Preceding this are two of the most sought after experimental jazz albums of 1970s—The Sounds of Liberation, a short-lived project formed alongside free jazz giant Byard Lancaster, which was quickly followed by the void opening transcendentalism of 1973’s Drum Dance To The Motherland. The trio assembled here, which features Clint Jackson III on trumpet and Christian Vander of the mighty prog outfit Magma on drums (listed under his Hassan Rashid guise), exchange an improvised dialogue that lands in a spacious netherworld somewhere between the ecstatic free-flowing spirituality of his work with The Sounds of Liberation and the spacey minimalism of Drum Dance. Jamal and Vander open the album as a duo on the ecstatic “Pure Energy, a free-rolling duel of percussion solos that manages to live up to the track’s title as the two go toe-to-toe on the lengthy piece. On “Clint”, Jamal switches over to the warmer tones of the marimba for a calmer conversation with Jackson and his soft flowing trumpet lines, while “35,007 ft Up” pits Vander against Jamal for another lengthy workout, the intensity pitched up another notch on the rematch. Rounding it all off is the title track, a near six minute solo for Jamal of sublime improvisation that perfectly captures the sound of the ringing tones of the rapidly struck bars, a nearly levitational vibration that feels otherworldly. Recorded in Paris by the legendary Jef Gilson and issued on his highly collectible Palm imprint (copies now regularly go for $1000), Give The Vibes Some would be the end of Jamal’s physical output as a band leader until the mid-80s.

It’s quite simple, if you have a good connection with music, to find things that should be reissued due to their exceptional quality, but, like a diviner, being able to unravel the problems related to the licensing of a record, well, that’s much more difficult. Finding someone is Sherlock’s job! After 4 years, Khan Jamal II (son of Khan Jamal) delighted us with a “Let’s go my guy”.

Khan Jamal doesn’t need much introduction: Born Warren Robert Cheeseboro, he was a jazz vibraphone and marimba player from Philly. He founded the band Sounds of Liberation in 1970 with Byard Lancaster. In 1974, during one of his many trips to the old continent, he recorded this album in France at Jeff Gilson’s Palm studio. It is a delicate game of lucid and intense contrasts between Christian Vander’s drums provides a rock oriented touch, the marimba and the vibes with influences from the lands of the rising sun of Jamal and the composed trumpet of Clint Jackson III which anchor “Give the vibes Some” in a sort of Space Age Jazz era.

In the end, you know what? This album is a transcendent journey into yourself, like an intense session of meditation…even if “35.007 Feet Up” could easily be played by Jeff MiIls in his DJ Set!