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Remastered and cut AAA directly from the original tapes by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab

Heavyweight 180g black vinyl
Pressed at Optimal Media

Housed in Stoughton old style tip-on jacket

Insert with newly written liner notes by Syd Schwartz and Barney Fields with rare photograph by K. Abe

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When Cosmos Nucleus first appeared in 1976 on Muse Records, it was the kind of album that seemed to evoke various idioms. It was a bold statement that drew strength from jazz's spiritual core while speaking in the electrified dialect of funk and fusion. Tenor saxophonist Carlos Garnett, a Panamanian-born firebrand who had sharpened his skills alongside Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and Art Blakey, conceived this project as both a personal revelation and a cosmic exploration. Nearly fifty years later, its reissue on 180-gram vinyl LP, mastered from the original tapes by Time Traveler Recordings, affirms its enduring status as one of the most daring and overlooked works of the post-John Coltrane era.

Garnett assembled an octet anchored by the versatile and probing keyboard work of a young Kenny Kirkland, with Cecil McBee's electric bass, Byron Benbow's restless drumming, Neil Clarke on congas and percussion, Gene Ballard on bongos and percussion, Otis 'Junior' McCleary on guitar, and Cheryl P. Alexander providing vocals of prophetic resonance. Surrounding them, he layered an eighteen-piece horn section that functions less as a traditional big band and more as a collective voice surging, pleading, and sometimes exalting. The sound is dense yet transparent, pulsing with rhythmic energy and spiritual urgency. The album speaks the language of jazz: improvisation, swing, and a reminder that the cosmos and the community remain forever intertwined. — (via All About Jazz)

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Reissued on vinyl by Craft Recordings’ Time Traveler series as one of an opening three titles from the vaults of the legendary Muse label, this ferociously creative 1976 studio date by saxophonist Carlos Garnett is an absolute knockout. Although he said he had never previously played with a big band never mind written for one, Garnett augmented his octet – featuring the very young Kenny Kirkland on electric piano – with seven trumpets, three trombones and eight saxes, on six distinctly different, fully realised original tunes.

The music reflects both Garnett’s Panamanian roots and the eclectic spirit of the age, with eminently danceable, Afrobeat-influenced funk sharing space with deep, Coltraney sax solos and an out-there Spiritual Jazz vibe that offers a powerful link back to Sun Ra or forward to Kamasi Washington. Latin and Caribbean structures – including some Iberian-inflected harmonies that would not seem out of place on Sketches of Spain – and expansive, dramatically coloured arrangements for the full ensemble, combine with chicken scratch guitar, emphatic hand percussion, popping electric bass (from Cecil McBee Jr), and punchy horn stabs. The result is more than enough to satisfy body, mind and soul in what amounts to a very effective holistic address to the listener.

Garnett, a self-taught musician who learned by ear before later teaching himself musical theory, was 37 at the time of the recording, having already played with Miles Davis (on Big Fun and On the Corner), Freddie Hubbard and Art Blakey among other notables. On Cosmos Nucleus he produces as well as composing, arranging and leading the band, and he plays tenor and soprano saxes, plus ukelele. He also sings on the closing track of Side A, “Wise Old Men”, which matches a Central American, proto-reggaeton groove with Afrocentric rhythm figures reminiscent of Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango. That Garnett can do all this, and deliver – on the standout sax feature “Kafira” – perhaps as beautiful a tenor sax ballad performance as that of any post-Coltrane player I know, is all rather humbling.

The new vinyl reissue is a thing of beauty, reproducing the great original cover and design by Ron Warwell, and adding new liner notes by Syd Schwartz to Alan Goodman’s original. There’s also a nicely felt brief note by Barney Fields, the son of Muse founder Joe Fields, honouring his dad’s role and the openness of the label’s ethos in leaving creative decisions to the musicians themselves.

Remastered and cut by Matt Lutthans at the Mastering Lab, Salina, Kansas, Cosmos Nucleus sounds every bit as good as it should. — (via UK Jazz News)

Vinyl Tracklist
A1 Saxy
A2 Cosmos Nucleus
A3 Wise Old Men
B1 Mystery Of Ages
B2 Kafira
B3 Bed-Stuy Blues

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Label: Muse Records // Time Traveler Recordings
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo, 180 Gram
Reissued: 2025 / Originally Released: 1976
Genre: Jazz, Latin
Style: Fusion, Contemporary Jazz

File under: Latin Influenced
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