Sweet Earth Flower is a tribute album His Name is Alive

His Name Is Alive

His Name Is Alive is an experimental rock band/project from Livonia, Michigan. After several self-released cassettes, they debuted on 4AD Records in 1990, starting a long run at the label...

 recorded to honor the music of Marion Brown

Marion Brown

Marion Brown was a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...

. Although it appeared after the Xmmer

XMMER

Xmmer is His Name Is Alive's follow-up to 2006's Detrola, released in the USA on September 18, 2007. Stylistically, it is very similar to its predecessor, featuring a wide variety of the many styles the band had explored in the past...

 album, it was recorded between the release of Detrola

Detrola

Detrola is an album by His Name Is Alive, released in 2006. Four years after being dropped from the 4AD roster, HNIA released this album on their own Silver Mountain Media Group label...

 and Xmmer

XMMER

Xmmer is His Name Is Alive's follow-up to 2006's Detrola, released in the USA on September 18, 2007. Stylistically, it is very similar to its predecessor, featuring a wide variety of the many styles the band had explored in the past...

. It was released by the High Two

High Two

High Two is a record label based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was launched in 2004 with the release of music by Dave Burrell and Sonic Liberation Front....

 label in 2007.

Side A

1. Sweet Earth Flying - 6:58
2. Juba Lee - 8:02
3. Capricorn Moon (live) - 13:32
4. November Cotton Flower - 4:34

Side B

1. Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim - 4:47
2. Geechee Recollections (I) - 9:07
3. Geechee Recollections (II) - 6:11
4. Sweet Earth Flying (live) - 7:22

Compositions

All songs were composed by Marion Brown

Marion Brown

Marion Brown was a jazz alto saxophonist and ethnomusicologist. He is most well known as a member of the 1960s avant-garde jazz scene in New York City, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai...

, except "Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim," which was written by longtime Brown collaborator Harold Budd

Harold Budd

Harold Budd is an American ambient/avant-garde composer and poet. Born in Los Angeles, he was raised in the Mojave Desert, and was inspired at an early age by the humming tone caused by wind blown across telephone wires....

. The track appears on Budd's Pavilion of Dreams album, as well as the Brown album Vista

Vista

Vista usually refers to a distant view.Vista may also refer to:-Software:*Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007...

.

Recording sessions

The album was recorded partly as a live concert and partly in studio sessions. Live tracks recorded November 2004 at University of Michigan Museum of Art

University of Michigan Museum of Art

The University of Michigan Museum of Art, or UMMA in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the USA. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall originally housed U-M's Alumni office along with the...

. Subsequent studio tracks were recorded at Defever's Brown Rice Studio in Detroit.

Other musicians

While His Name is Alive

His Name Is Alive

His Name Is Alive is an experimental rock band/project from Livonia, Michigan. After several self-released cassettes, they debuted on 4AD Records in 1990, starting a long run at the label...

 has been a rotating cast of musicians since its inception, Sweet Earth Flower features a new crop of contributors. Elliot Bergman, leader of the Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 band Nomo

Nomo

Nomo is a band from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The band formed at the University of Michigan, and is not to be confused with the 1980's Pop/New Wave band of the same name fronted by California singer-songwriter David Batteau, which is best known for the 1985 minor hit "Red Lipstick".Fronted by Elliot...

, was a key contributor to Detrola

Detrola

Detrola is an album by His Name Is Alive, released in 2006. Four years after being dropped from the 4AD roster, HNIA released this album on their own Silver Mountain Media Group label...

. He appears on much of Sweet Earth Flower, with much of Nomo

Nomo

Nomo is a band from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The band formed at the University of Michigan, and is not to be confused with the 1980's Pop/New Wave band of the same name fronted by California singer-songwriter David Batteau, which is best known for the 1985 minor hit "Red Lipstick".Fronted by Elliot...

 in tow. Dan Piccolo, Michael Herbst, Justin Walter, Erik Hall, and Olman Piedra.

Personnel

• Warn Defever - guitar, piano
• Elliot Bergman - tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  , Rhodes
  Rhodes
  Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
  
  
• Jamie Saltsman - double bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Justin Walter - trumpet
• Jamie Easter - percussion
• Dan Piccolo - drums, percussion
• Michael Herbst - alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Erik Hall - electric piano
  Electric piano
  An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...
  
  
• Olman Piedra - congas, cajon
  Cajón
  A cajón is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front face with the hands.-Origins and evolution:...
  
  

Sleeve

The album's sleeve was designed by Warn Defever and Dion Fischer

Dion Fischer

Dion Fischer is an American musician, producer, and visual artist born in Romeo, Michigan in 1972.Dion played lead guitar in Detroit garage rock band The Go from 1999–2004, as replacement to Detroit born musician and childhood friend Jack White. He spent his formative musical years playing with...

. It features two stencil images of Brown. The cover features a reverse image of Brown.

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	November 6, 2007	High Two High Two High Two is a record label based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was launched in 2004 with the release of music by Dave Burrell and Sonic Liberation Front....	CD	HT014

External links

• Album notes and reviews from High Two