Limited edition 12" 45 rpm 180 gram LP (100 copies only) & hi-res download
chosen by DownBeat Magazine as one of their best albums of 2022
EMANCIPATION SUITE
Equality - Compassion - LiberationFranklin Kiermyer - drums
Davis Whitfield - piano
Emilio Modeste - tenor saxophone
Otto Gardner - bass
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the act of emancipation is "to free from restraint, control, or the power of another, especially : to free from bondage or to free from any controlling influence (such as traditional mores or beliefs)."
According to Wikipedia, "Emancipation is any effort to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchised group, or more generally, in discussion of such matters”
These definitions speak to the bondage imposed by others, vivid proof of our need of compassion. Emancipation can also mean to free our spirit, soul or true nature. To free ourselves from the concepts and habits that hold us back is to be fully emancipated. That freeing-of-the-soul is music’s greatest purpose.
"Scatter The Atoms That Remain Calls For Universal Freedoms Such As It Enacts." ~ DownBeat Magazine
SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN opens the inaugural
JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ~ UNITY FESTIVAL on January 12, 2024
Special Guests RANDY BRECKER & BILLY HARPER
with Isaiah Collier & Nat Reeves
more information
A Match Made In Heaven of Cosmic Souls Riding The SunShip Together As One
SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN will appear at
the 2024 Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia
with Special Guest RANDY BRECKER
Scatter the Atoms that Remain - Live!
Spirit and magic - what lies beyond mere intellect. The soul - the heart - the qualities that set us free ... this transformative power of music is what SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN is all about. Music can open our hearts. That’s the purpose of this band. Our goal is to rest in that openness and let go. The more we practice this, the more our natural faith develops. The music finds its strength in that. That’s what we want to share.
You can hear for yourselves and feel it too - this music is new - not like anything else. What it does is palpable. That’s the point - what it does - how it makes you feel. It causes an opening to occur. Like faithful prayer, seance and ritual, but not religious . . . Spiritual.
Those in the know see where it’s coming from, those that are brave see where it’s going. The spirited are moved beyond thought. That’s its purpose. Fearless and uncompromising, this music is deeply rooted in our shared ancestry.
The legacy that all but went South after the 60’s went underground, but never disappeared. The bar was raised so high, no one could get there. Young musicians that were so deeply compelled by Supreme Love and the Sun Ship had to follow another stream to take the edge off, or they turned away from tonality and pulse, hoping to ascend by speaking in tongues. As many have said, neither succeeded.
Scatter The Atoms That Remain does.
SCATTER THE ATOMS THAT REMAIN Redefines Transformative Spiritual Music
"... a sense of shared catharsis through music that is at once majestic, ferocious, and relatable ... the words “ecstasy” and “ecstatic” appear almost predictably, but sometimes a word is just right. Scatter The Atoms That Remain channel the kind of beautiful, disciplined intensity exemplified by the late John Coltrane. This type of universal, non-denominational spirituality simply feels good." ~ Jazz At Lincoln Center
FRANKLIN KIERMYER - drums & leader
Since recording the iconic album Solomon’s Daughter with Pharaoh Sanders in 1994, drummer, composer and bandleader Franklin Kiermyer has been known mostly for his expansive style of drumming, distinct sound and the spiritual focus of his music.
“The function of our music - its true purpose - is fulfilled when everyone feels strong, free and unafraid to jump into the unknown, leaving behind what holds us back. That experience is what Scatter The Atoms That Remain is all about. Our music changes people.” - Franklin Kiermyer
“Kiermyer plays and composes with an almost evangelical belief in jazz as a form of pure inspiration.” - Entertainment Weekly
“Drummer Franklin Kiermyer is that rare jazzman – blessed with the ecstatic quality of his free-bop attack.” - Rolling Stone Magazine
“Kiermyer supercharges spiritual modality … he plays with volcanic authority.” - DownBeat Magazine
DAVIS WHITFIELD - piano & music director
Pianist, composer and musical director Davis Whitfield was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1993 and grew up in Jersey City, just across the Hudson river from Greenwich Village, NYC. Davis has performed at many leading venues worldwide with Pharaoh Sanders, George Coleman, Jeff Tain Watts, Fatoumata Diawara and Robert Glasper, to name just a few.
Davis was on piano in Pharoah Sanders’ last performance Just weeks before his passing in September of 2022 at Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here festival in Cambridge, UK.
Working very closely with Franklin Kiermyer since 2016, he has already developed a profoundly distinctive voice of his own characterized by a depth and reach that belies his age.
“Think of how you felt the first time you heard Jimi Hendrix play Purple Haze, or the first time you heard Sun Ship, Transition or First Meditations. That’s what people feel when they hear Scatter The Atoms.”
- Davis Whitfield
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