Review: Sahib Shihab (Edmund Gregory) played with many of jazz's finest musicians. Shortly after he became one of the first jazz players to change their names due to an Islamic conversion, he joined Thelonious Monk for his Blue Note sessions. He also played with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Pettiforn and Quincy Jones. A unique saxophonist of all stripes (baritone, alto and tenor), he was at home in every musical style, from the experimentalism of Thelonious Monk to the more direct hard bop of Art Blakey. Shihab's distinctive sound was rooted in his modernist compositions and arrangements, complemented by an intense, soulful playing style. All this is more than exemplified on this beautiful record, Oktav 1965, on which Shihab is heard in collaboration with the Danish Radio Jazz Group, and performs four measured, slow-unfurling jazz numbers, from 'Di-Da' to 'Mai Ding', all of which carry an underlying spirituality against a foreground of doomy totality.
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