Yusuf Mumin - Alto Sax
Ron deVaughn - Cello, Bass
Haasan-Al-Hut - Drums
A much-coveted and totally blasting set: it’s unsurprising to discover, for example, that Numero Group’s Rob Sevier listed Al-Fatihah as his dream reissue in an interview with Dusted Magazine. The Black Unity Trio were based in Oberlin, Ohio, and their line-up was Yusuf Mumin (aka Joe Phillips) on alto sax, Ron DeVaughn (aka Abdul Wadud) on cello and bass, and Haasan Al-Hut on percussion. Wadud went on to become one of the most significant cellists in free jazz (having made a number of appearances in this list) while Phillips only turns up alongside Norman Howard on Burn Baby Burn.
For anyone following Wadud’s thread, this is the significant starting point. But it’s also one of the more sublime free jazz records you’ll likely hear, cut from the same cloth as some of the more questing, spiritualized ESP titles, but with a fundamental rawness that gives cuts like ‘Birth, Life & Death’ and ‘In The Light Of Blackness’ a ferocious focus – the way the former opens the album with gentle, lyrical runs, before nose-diving into free playing particularly from Mumin/Phillips, comes across like an object lesson in how to do this kind of music right. Someone reissue this monster! (source)
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