Natalia Lagiitaua

Lucien Johnson: Ancient Relics

by Chris May
March 7, 2024

The astral jazz of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane is among the most mimicked jazz to be heard in 2024. Mimicked as in superficial, cynical, clichéd, travesty. So it is a rare pleasure to come across an album as singular and substantial as New Zealand-based tenor saxophonist Lucien Johnson's Ancient Relics. The album is the follow-up to Wax///Wane (Deluge, 2020), another sextet affair with a similar lineup and the same bassist and drummer. It was a promising disc ...