Carrying on their hugely important explorations of the most fascinating moments in the history of jazz, Heavenly Sweetness returns with a much needed repress of their reissue of The John Betsch Society’s astounding 1974 LP “Earth Blossom”. Among the most fascinating, rarest, and engrossing listens to have appeared within the legendary Strata East catalog, this rarely glimpsed expression of Afrocentrism and black liberation entirely side-steps expectations, threading driving spiritual jazz with heavy grooves and moments of forward-thinking abstraction and free improvisation.

As any serious fan of free and spiritual jazz knows, a great deal of the most important and groundbreaking work that was laid to tape during the 1970s appeared slightly off the beaten path. Rather than being issued by legendary imprints like Blue Note, Impulse, Columbia, Verve, Prestige, and Riverside, dozens of artists began their own labels, like Charles Tyler's AK-BA, Rashied Ali's Survival, and Steve Reid's Mustevic Sound, to name only a few, as means toward economic and creative self-determinism for their communities and themselves. Among the most legendary of these imprints was the New York based label Strata East, launched in 1971 by musicians Charles Tolliver and Stanley Cowell. Over the course of its roughly ten years of activity, the label would deliver some of the most singular LPs of the era, by artists as diverse as Gil Scott-Heron, Pharoah Sanders, Brother Ahh, Mtume Umoja Ensemble, Clifford Jordan, Cecil McBee, The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe, Billy Harper, Ju Ju, and numerous others. Among these, one of the most striking and sought after releases in the Strata East catalog is The John Betsch Society’s 1974 LP “Earth Blossom”. An astounding gesture of fusion oriented spiritual jazz, capturing a rarely glimpsed expression of Afrocentrism and black liberation creative thought, back in 2007 Heavenly Sweetness dropped the much needed, first ever vinyl reissue of this captivating and rare gem.

The John Betsch Society is a rare outlier in the Strata East catalog, featuring one of the few bands that was not based in New York. Founded in Nashville by the drummer John Betsch, and counting a fairly under-celebrated cast of players as members - the percussionist Phil Royster; the bassist Ed "Lump" Williams; the flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist Billy Puett; the guitarist Jim Bridges, and the pianist Bob Holmes - this relatively short-lived project would only record one LP, “Earth Blossom”, that received very little attention at the time of its release in 1974, and would only gather critical acclaim when it was rediscovered by serious jazz diggers in the 1990s and early 2000s.

While The John Betsch Society lingered for years within the more obscure chapters in the story of 1970s jazz, its leader, John Betsch, illuminates a deeper sense of connectedness than might be first expected. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, the drummer cut his teeth working in the Bob Holmes trio, before studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and then at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, under Archie Shepp and Max Roach. It was during this period, drawing on the ideas of African American radical creativity and politics that he encountered via Shepp and Roach, that he would return to Nashville and form his “society”.

Despite being unquestionably linked to the Afrocentric ideas that ran like a vein through much of the best jazz of its era, “Earth Blossom”, recorded on a single day in one take, illuminates a very different manner of expression from what was generally expected from radical black jazz during the 1970s: notably albums like Mtume Umoja Ensemble’s 1972 LP, “Alkebu-Lan - Land Of The Blacks”, also issued by Strata East, which seethes like a ball of furious fire. “Earth Blossom” is a gentler affair, steeped in psychedelic experiences and the kinds of spiritualism that had driven artists like John and Alice Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders.

Heavily defined by a driving rhythmic sensibility, throbbing and chugging as it goes and laced with sweeping pastoral elements that allude to the larger musical production of the 1970s - marvellously executed within fairly constrained instrumentation - “Earth Blossom” certainly isn’t without an undercurrent of radicalism. Running through the grooves and lines is a strong sense of abstraction, pushing outward creatively into textural passages and flirtations of free improvisation that provide a striking sense of tension across the album’s length.

Nothing short of an engrossing listen, once encountered there’s little question as to why The John Betsch Society’s lone, 1974 LP, “Earth Blossom”, stands among the rarest, most celebrated, and sought after releases in the legendary Strata East catalog. Not long after its release, Betsch would join Marion Brown’s band, before going on to work with luminaries like Henry Threadgill, Dollar Brand, Billy Bang, and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, and then, eventually, relocating to Paris, where he still lives and works, and has played and recorded extensively with the likes of Steve Lacy, Mal Waldron and Archie Shepp. “Earth Blossom” is where this illustrious career began, and arguably remains the drummer's defining statement.