Leon Thomas

The first album, Spirits Known and Unknown, had been a small group. For the second, released in 1970, Bob Thiele gave Leon Thomas five horns arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson, a fellow St. Louisan: Ernie Royal on trumpet, Jerome Richardson on alto, Billy Harper on tenor, Howard Johnson on baritone, Donald Smith on flute, with Billy Cobham on drums and John Williams Jr. on electric bass. Ace's reissue notes say the extravagance was a reward for how well the debut had sold.

That band plays the first three tracks: Come Along, I Am and a version of Milt Jackson's Bag's Groove that Ace calls fabulous. Then the record changes character. Um, Um, Um (eleven and a half minutes) and the side-long Pharoah's Tune (The Journey), credited to Pharoah Sanders, are live recordings, with audience audible, and a different rhythm section: Roy Haynes on drums, Bob Cunningham on bass, James Spaulding on flute, and Thomas himself on maracas, bells, Thai and Ecuadorian flutes. No date or venue is given on the sleeve.

Thom Jurek at AllMusic, who was especially taken with this record, wrote that it left him mystified as to why Thomas was not huge. Robert Christgau gave it an A and wrote that Thomas turned scat from a virtuoso trick into an atavistic call from the unconscious.

Japanese CD edition from Solid's Flying Dutchman series.