It can sometimes be refreshing to honor your heroes. It also has something of a reckoning, after which you can move on. American saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin delved into the spiritual world of her heroes John and Alice Coltrane on the, admittedly somewhat too stylized
Pursuance The Coltranes (2020). Perhaps because of that reckoning, she now sounds freer on Phoenix. It's a varied album on which
… fusion, vocal neo-soul, post-bop and even bebop are framed by spoken word from former Black Panther activist Angela Davis, among others. Once again, the eclectic and smoothly playing Benjamin manages to make this sound like a stylized and accessible whole. (MR)more
