''The Leon Thomas Album'' is the second album by American jazz vocalist and percussionist

Leon Thomas Amos Leon Thomas Jr. (October 4, 1937 – May 8, 1999), known professionally as Leon Thomas, was an American jazz and blues vocalist, born in East St. Louis, Illinois, and known for his bellowing glottal-stop style of free jazz singing in the l ...

recorded in 1970 and released by the

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Du ...

label.Both Sides Now: Flying Dutchman Label Discography
accessed November 18, 2019
accessed November 18, 2019

Reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

reviewer Thom Jurek stated: "On the follow-up to the mind-blowing ''Spirits Known and Unknown'', singer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and composer Leon Thomas decided to take a different track. Far from the sparely orchestrated ensembles of the previous works, Thomas loaded this set with jazz luminaries ... Side one is the up-tempo jazz ride, as Thomas and company rip through a host of his own tunes ... The real gem on the album is "Pharaoh's Tune (The Journey)," which comprises all of side two ... It's a breathtaking ride made all the more so by the long, jazzed-out setup of side one. Why this guy wasn't huge is a mystery.". Critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

said "He has literally expanded the musical possibilities of the human voice. He is as powerful a jazz/blues singer as Joe Williams or Joe Turner, both of whom he occasionally resembles, as inventive a scatter as

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

... I have to suspend my disbelief and recommend this record unreservedly to anyone with the slightest fondness for jazz".

Track listing

All compositions by Leon Thomas except where noted # "Come Along" (Leon Thomas,

Neal Creque Earl Neal Creque (April 13, 1940 – December 1, 2000) was an American organist and jazz composer, born in the Virgin Islands; he was based in the Cleveland area, was a professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and played frequently around n ...

) − 3:02 # "I Am" − 3:17 # " Bag's Groove" (

Milt Jackson Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solo ...

, Ellen May Shashoyan) − 3:19 # "Um, Um, Um" − 11:35 # "Pharoah's Tune (The Journey)" (Leon Thomas,

Pharoah Sanders Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...

) − 17:55

Personnel

− vocals, maracas, Thailand flute, Hindewe flute, Freedom flute (Ecuador), bells *

Ernie Royal Ernest Andrew Royal (June 2, 1921 in Los Angeles, California – March 16, 1983 in New York City) was a jazz trumpeter. His older brother was clarinetist and alto saxophonist Marshal Royal, with whom he appears on the classic Ray Charles big ban ...

− trumpet (tracks 1-3 & 5) *Donald Smith (tracks 1-3 & 5),

James Spaulding James Ralph Spaulding Jr. (born July 30, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United states, Spaulding attended the Chicago Cosmopolitan School of Music. Between 1957 and 1961, he was a member of Sun ...

(tracks 4 & 5) − flute *Sonny Morgan − bongos, African oboe *

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with Ch ...

− alto saxophone (tracks 1-3 & 5) *

Billy Harper Billy Harper (born January 17, 1943) is an American jazz saxophonist, "one of a generation of John Coltrane, Coltrane-influenced tenor saxophonists" with a distinctively stern, hard-as-nails sound on his instrument.Chris KelseyBilly Harper Biogr ...

− tenor saxophone (tracks 1-3 & 5) * Howard Johnson − baritone saxophone (tracks 1-3 & 5) *Arthur Sterling - piano *John Williams Jr. − electric bass (tracks 1-3 & 5) * Bob Cunningham − bass (tracks 4 & 5) *

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian Americans, Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was indu ...

(tracks 1-3 & 5),

Roy Haynes Roy Owen Haynes (born March 13, 1925) is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jazz ...

(tracks 4 & 5) − drums *Gene Golden − bongos (tracks 4 & 5) *Richie "Pablo" Landrum − congas *

Oliver Nelson Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most signifi ...

− arranger, conductor (tracks 1-3 & 5)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon Thomas Album, The Leon Thomas albums 1969 albums Flying Dutchman Records albums Albums produced by Bob Thiele Albums arranged by Oliver Nelson Albums conducted by Oliver Nelson