‘A Time For Healing’ is an attractive, well-arranged declaration on behalf of spiritual return. The network of roots below this record extends from West Africa to Chicago, with the quartet breezing alongside a hypnotic kalimba and making time for tributes to Coltrane and Eddie Smith. If this record has a serious shortcoming, it is in repeatedly making similar artistic and philosophical points. Then again, Kahil El’Zabar certainly doesn’t set sail on an experimental expedition and chooses instead to be buoyed by his own classical proficiency and that of his band. Its strengths, the crisp bass and mesmerising organ, are so inarguable that this relatively straight-shooting collection is often propelled into a lilting bliss.
22/30
A favourite: ‘Urban Shaman’
‘A Time For Healing’ is out now via @spiritmuserecords
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