Michael Howell is a little-known soul-jazz fusion guitarist, but those who are familiar with his music love him. One of my favorites is his album In the Silence. Recorded for Milestone in April 1974, the LP features Bennie Maupin (ts,saxello,b-cl,alto-fl,pic), Michael Howell (g), Henry Franklin (b), Leon "Ndugu" Chancler (d) and Kenneth Nash (perc,cga).
Born in Kansas City, Howell was taught by his father and guitarist Herley Dennis Howell. Michael Howell studied classical guitar at the Music and Arts Institute of San Francisco and received a music degree from Lehman College in New York.
Howell recorded as a sideman on many other artists' recordings and then performed and recorded with his own group. He recorded three albums as a leader: Looking Glass, In the Silence and Alone—the first two on Milestone and the third on Catalyst.
In addition to Howell's fingerstyle guitar technique, In the Silence features Maupin's moaning, meditative bass clarinet and other reed instruments. The album's tracks shift neatly from fusion to straight-ahead jazz. Franklin on bass plays compelling lines, while Chancler and Nash run terrific Afro-jazz polyrhythms. [Photo above of Bennie Maupin in 2009 on bass clarinet by David Tallacksen, courtesy of NPR]
The tracks (all by Howell except where noted):
- The Call
- Don't Explain (Billie Holiday)
- Ebony King
- In the Silence
- Althea
- Circles
- Think On Me (George Cables)
What I love most about this album is how Howell changes up what he's doing on each track and how Maupin's bass clarinet and other reeds slide in to create a mood. Howell's songwriting also is first-rate. The album takes you back (or it did for me) to the mid-1970s if you lived through them.
JazzWax tracks: This album was released only as a vinyl LP and is rare and hard to find.
JazzWax clips: Fortunately, someone has uploaded the entire LP to YouTube. Here's the complete In the Silence...
