Byron Pope Speed of Light

Music for Earthdwellers and Starseekers Byron Pope Speed of Light

Alto saxophonist Byron Herman Pope (born 1934) might be a rather unsung name on the bill despite being part of the avant-garde jazz circuit for more than half a century. Deeply committed to the ideas of John Coltrane, he has played with Alan Silva and Sunny Murray but only recorded sporadically over the course of his long career.

Byron Pope's 1982 LP Music For Earthdwellers And Starseekers (recorded at Studio Caroline, Paris) is a sublime modal jazz record with a nice cosmic spiritual touch. Enlisting a superb all-star line-up including Georges-Edouard Nouel on piano, Roger Raspail (Kassav) on percussion and Chris Henderson (Sun Ra) on drums. To top things off, the album was engineered by the legendary Jean-Philippe Bonichon (who later on went to become the engineer responsible for many of the early remixes of Dimitri From Paris).