Search - Billy Harper :: Soul of an Angel

Music for your spirit, music for your soul!

Tony Addison | Upper Marlboro, MD USA | 09/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The latest offering from Billy Harper, "Soul of An Angel", is music for the soul. These wonderful sounds will take you places. Some familiar, but from a different view. Others unknown, but you will welcome the discovery of pure warmth and happiness. After more than twenty dedicated listenings, I still find new sounds and ideas coming through with the power and intensity that is representative of Billy's playing. Are there my favorites? Can't say because the music changes with the experiences of living each day. I'm hoping you will treat yourself to this CD, take time out, and in a place of quietude, make these gems your own. You will find that the soul these stellar musicians are praising about...is yours."

Billy Harper is in top form on this one!

S. Gilmer | San Diego, CA USA | 07/12/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You can't get an idea of the power and majesty of these songs by listening to the clips, as his intros are anywhere from one to four minutes. But what great songs these are. There really aren't many jazz musicians of this stature who can and do write such beautiful melodies, and fill them out with such outstanding arrangements. Not that Mr. Harper doesen't do standards justice, such as on 'It Came Upon A Midnight Clear' on this release, and the magical 'My One And Only Love' from "If Our Hearts Could Only See". It's just that the wonderful melodies of the title song, 'Credence' and especially 'Thine Is The Glory' are new and original and meaningful.All of these pieces are surrounded by hard and taut playing by the other band members. Francesca Tanksley, who has been playing piano with Mr. Harper for more than 15 years, turns in a blistering performance on 'Thine Is The Glory' that just about makes me weep with joy.This music is deceptively soft-on-the-edges jazz which is familliar with the entire history of the music, but isn't happy to just sit by and reminisce. This is music that is ready to tell you something new about yourself. Are you ready?"

Coltrane-derived but exciting

A. K. L. | Steilacoom, WA USA | 04/26/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Though the titles of the tunes are Neo-Coltrane New-Age Ecstatic ('Thine Is the Glory'), and the liner notes are full of references to the divine inspiration of this music (do inspired musicians really have to tell you that their art comes from God?), this is nevertheless exciting music. The piano (Francesca Tanksley) is a faithful mcCoy Tyner sound-alike who sets up interesting modal riffs for Harper's Coltrane-derived sheets of sound. The surging poly-rhythms of drummer Newman Baker are pure Elvin Jones. This music descends directly from the great Coltrane quartert of the early '60's. When you get beyond that fact, you can really enjoy the passion of these fine musicians, who must nevertheless someday find a more original voice. Harper has evolved the Coltrane style into something close to originality: tighter than the Master, with a bright brittle timber like Michael Brecker's. Trumpeter Eddie Henderson joins the quartet on three selections, and one of the cuts ('Let All the Voices Sing') also features a French horn. These ensembles clearly extend the sound beyond Coltrane territory. Although his music is derivitive, Billy Harper is far more exciting and adventurous than most of today's tenors, who are playing it safe by keeping one foot in the Smooth Jazz market. Harper- along with David Murray, Jeff Coffin, and Bennie Wallace- are tenors who deserve a wider audience: they stay inside the bounds of straight-ahead bop, yet they haven't sold out to the smoothies. Buy their recordings!"