Rudolph Johnson

The Second Coming Rudolph Johnson Remastered edition

he album title is apt, as this was saxman Rudolph Johnson's second

album for the Black Jazz label (and this reissue marks only the second

time this 1973 album has been released on vinyl)! But more importantly,

the quality of the music it contains renders the more common, Messianic

meaning of the phrase "the second coming" equally applicable. Saxman

and bandleader Rudolph Johnson never attained the commercial success

of some of his contemporaries, but his fans consider him the rightful

heir to John Coltrane's improvisational genius. And with keyboardist Kirk

Lightsey in the band for this go-round (we already reissued Johnson's

very fine 1971 Black Jazz album Spring Rain), sparks are gonna fly,

starting right off with the cookin' album opener "The Traveler," which

if you close your eyes will definitely bring to mind Coltrane's classic

quartet circa the early '60s. Indeed, unlike most of the other releases

on the Black Jazz label, The Second Coming barely nods to the fusion

and soul jazz trends that were sweeping jazz at the time. Instead, this

is expressive, free improvisation at its best, beautifully recorded by

producer Gene Russell and deserving of a much wider audience than it

found the first time. Newly remastered and annotated!