The Pyramids: Otherworldly

The Pyramids have not had an album in 35 years. There’s no use in finding out what the delay was because they are on a roll. Their 2007 reunion and subsequent tour was an unexpected success and they decided to take the good times to the studio. They have emerged with the double album (if you are a vinyl customer) Otherwordly, an effort positively stuffed with funky vamps, hollers, peace mongering and more than enough soloing to sound like the Art Ensemble of Chicago on their day off, or at least with significantly lower blood pressure.

Saxophonist Idris Ackamoor blazes the trail and bassists Kash Killion and Thomas “Kimathi Asante” Williams can come up with some surprisingly slinky lines that sink in after Kenneth Nash starts in with the back beat. “Absolution” is a corny highlight, but pretty much all of Otherworldly is liberating for one reason or another.