Horace Tapscott “Ancestral Echoes” // Eric Snider, Jazziz

Given the renewed interest in Afro-influenced jazz (Shabaka Hutchings, Kamasi Washington), why not explore one of the American fountainheads? Los Angeles pianist/composer/activist Tapscott (1934-1999) led his 21-piece P.A.P.A. through a studio set that consists of four long compositions built on (sometime excruciatingly) extended vamps, massive slabs of horns, unruly solos and Tapscott’s piano fights. Energy trumps precision.