Herbie Mann Common Ground CD

Originally released on Atlantic (1343).
Personnel: Herbie Mann (flute); Michael Olatunji (vocals, percussion); Dolores Parker, Maya Angelou (vocals); Doc Cheatham, Ziggy Schatz, Jerry Kail, Leo Ball (trumpet); John Rae (vibraharp, percussion); Nabil Totah (double bass); Rudy Collins (drums); Ray Mantilla (congas); Ray Barretto (bongos).
Herbie Mann is a capable jazz flutist, but his music has mostly been known in the popular sense. This means that while he could've continued his bop career after the 1950s, he worked toward offering a hybrid instead, a form of pop-jazz that could be easily accepted by middle America. On the surface, The Common Ground (originally released in 1960; re-released by Collectables in 2004) implies its serious nature. Mann teams with his Afro-Jazz Sextet to offer a fusion of Cuban, African, and American jazz, much in the manner of Dizzy Gillespie. But Mann, unlike Gillespie, is more interested in offering a commercial variation on Afro jazz, and as a result, The Common Ground circumvents exploration for tuneful melodies and solid, but predictable, solos. Mann has written or co-written half of the pieces on the album, and compositions like "Baghdad" and the title blend in well with Sonny Rollins' "St. Thomas" and Gillespie and Frank Paparelli's "Night in Tunisia." Most of the instrumental dexterity on the album is supplied by Mann's flute, which perfectly matches the mood of material. For the faithful, The Common Ground delivers an enjoyable (if short) set at the beginning of Mann's long, successful career as a popular artist on Atlantic Records. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.
Flautist Herbie Mann is well-known for his forays into Cuban jazz. However, on 1960s THE COMMON GROUND, he journeys east to create a unique blend of jazz and African music. Much of this album still falls back on salsa sounds, since Mann employs a four-man Latin-inspired trumpet section and two Puerto Rican percussionists. However, the strength of this record lies in Mann's collaborations with the West African hand-drummer Michael Olatunji.
For "Sawa Sawa De'," Mann plays an African flute, and vibraphonist John Rae switches to an African marimba, while the vocals of Olatunji, Maya Angelou, and Dolores Parker invoke the spirit of Nigeria. Mann's composition "Uhuru" also interweaves jazz with African sounds, though the boundaries here are not as clear. This tune is a simple waltz centered on a 12-bar blues form; however, Olatunji's griot-style vocal performance, heard towards the end of this piece, takes the listener back to West Africa. As the closing title track implies, Mann's record is about finding common ground in a number of styles, blending American jazz and Latin rhythms with the strong influence of African music.