Jam for Your Life!


Jam for Your Life! is an album by percussionist Famoudou Don Moye. It was recorded at Sparrow Sound Design and North Shore Studios in Chicago, Illinois. An initial version, with material recorded in September 1985, was released on cassette later that year by AECO Records, a label founded by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In 1991, AECO reissued the album, with material recorded during 1983–1991, on CD with a different track order and an additional track. On the album, Moye is joined by multi-instrumentalist Ari Brown, vocalist Luba Raashiek, and nearly a dozen additional musicians.

Reception

In a review for JazzTimes, Willard Jenkins described the album as "an Afro-centric outing laden with percussion and the AACM sense of music with a theatrical bent that serves the dual purpose of exploration and entertainment," and wrote: "At the helm Moye's percussive colors, from djembe to traps, are lush and penetrating and the cast is a well-integrated bunch."
Jeff Potter of Modern Drummer stated: "From ancient to future, primal to complex, Moye's music retains a positive, on-the-spot urgency with all the right roots grit intact."

CD Track listing

  1. "Two City Suite: Sidi Ifni / Rokupuhr"" – 8:17
  2. "Solomon / Jam for Your Life" – 10:08
  3. "One for Skip" – 6:03
  4. "Black Nile" – 4:17
  5. "Kamsar" – 4:14
  6. "Richard's Tune" – 10:05
  7. "My Romance" – 9:14
  8. "Miles Mode" – 4:13
  • Tracks 2, 4, 6, and 7 were recorded at North Shore Studios in Chicago during 1983–85. Tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8 were recorded at Sparrow Sound Design in Chicago during 1986–91.

Personnel