1. The Eagle Staff Is First (Auld/Pullen) 3:47
2. Common Ground (Kenmille/Pullen 10:22
3. River Song (Kenmille/Pullen 7:30
4. Reservation Blues (Kenmille/Pullen) 6:42
5. Message In Smoke (Kenmille/Pullen) 8:20
6. Resting On The Road (Kenmille/Pullen) 7:47
7. Reprise: Still Here (Kenmille/Pullen) 1:40
*
Don Pullen, piano
&
The African Brazilian Connection:
Carlos Ward, alto saxophone
J. T. Lewis, drums
Mor Thiam, African percussion
Featuring:
Joseph Bowie, trombone
Santi Debriano, bass
and
Chief Cliff Singers:
Mike Kenmille (lead)
Clifford Burke
Arleen Adams
Gina Big Beaver
Clayton Burke
Kenny Lozeau
Francis Auld
*
Native American songs meet African-Brazilian jazz
It is fitting that in Don Pullen's final complete recording he leaves us with a unique combination of multicultural sounds representing the culmination of his life in music. With "Sacred Common Ground", Pullen combines the African-Brazilian Connection, with whom he recorded and toured for much of the 1990s, with the Chief Cliff Singers, Kootenai Indians from Elmo, Montana. Jazz always seemed far too restrictive a term for what Don Pullen gave to the world, and in this parting contribution he demonstrates the universality of music, culture, and spiritual roots.
...The result is a rich collection of Native American chanting built upon the soft, dynamic and soothing sound of Pullen's Afro-Brazilian style of jazz. Joseph Bowie's trombone brings out a strong bluesy feel to "Reservation Blues", which starts off with the singers chanting and then abruptly switches to a more traditional twelve-bar blues. Bowie and alto saxophonist Carlos Ward weave back and fourth, then give way to Pullen's rolling, percussive playing. Throughout the CD, the combination of J.T. Lewis' Latin-tinged jazz drumming and Senegalese Mor Thiam's African percussion, combined with the indigenous Americans' steady pounding, make for a rich and soulful sound...(Mark Craemer)
