Nat Birchall - Peace And Blessings Nat Birchall

Way back in 1973 I bought the triple LP, 'Grounation', by Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari. I'd been really into Jamaican music for a year or two, but this was something much deeper, it was my first extended exposure to Nyabinghi music and it covered a lot of bases, instrumentals, vocal songs, poems, narration etc. But it was also true Jamaican Spiritual Jazz, long before that overused term was coined of course, and I heard Cedric 'IM' Brooks playing soulful and wild tenor saxophone before I ever heard of John Coltrane. The profound Afrocentric content, musically and otherwise, along with the serious, impassioned playing had a deep effect on me and the music took me to places I hadn't experienced previously.

Coltrane's name was mentioned in the accompanying notes and when I eventually bought a Coltrane album (Blue Train, in 1977) I could immediately hear the sonic influence in the work of Cedric Brooks and also in Tommy McCook's sound.

The very first musical instrument I ever bought was an African drum, actually a pair of drums. They were really only the kind of thing made for tourists as souvenirs or decoration, but I played along with my Count Ossie records on them. My next instrument purchase was a pair of maracas, made in Mexico from gourds, and I still have them and I used them on this recording as well as on other previous albums. The sound of the drum has always held a special resonance with me, and I sometimes say that if I wasn't a saxophone player I would be a drummer. I hear so much in the sound, if it's the right drum and the right drummer of course.

So this is my version of Nyabinghi music, and I had some reservations about making it because of the cultural and spiritual significance of it to the Jamaican people who played and continue to play it. But after reflecting on it I came to realise that this music eventually led me to where I am today, so it's a part of my musical development and I should go ahead and make it anyway.