Free Souls

Not as accomplished or as enjoyable as the previous 'Love and Revolution' album.

To begin, if you liked Conte's albums "Rituals" (Schema, 2008) and also "Other Directions" (Blue Note/Schema, 2004), then you may not like this album to the same extent. It's fair to say you'll be more interested in this album if you were into the later "Love & Revolution" (Impulse!/Universal Classics & Jazz, 2011) in my opinion. Personally, I find this a bit of a pity, as I always preferred Conte's more hardcore jazz sound to his more lounge or so-called populist 'vocal' output, and this album goes in the latter's direction.But one has to move on as an artist and progress into other areas of interest, which is exactly what Conte is doing, here featuring much more soul, blues, and even funk, interspersed between jazzy nodes of one sort or another. It's not as good as "Love & Revolution" in my humble opinion, but then it's a different beast altogether, so expect more soul sounds then anything else.It's a shame that a couple of the best tracks "Astral Rivers" and "A Prayer For Lateef", which are both good IMO, are saved for the vinyl 2LP (or swapped-out on the Jap CD -- likely getting an extended reissue in a couple of years). But nonetheless this is solid work, and after a couple of listens one can surely find a few gems in here.For physical release differences, see here:http://www.discogs.com/Nicola-Conte-Free-Souls/master/708945