ProJazz.net

The Jewel in the Lotus is the debut album by jazz woodwind player Bennie Maupin, recorded in March 1974 and released on ECM later that year.

The editors of AllMusic awarded the album a full five stars. Thom Jurek called it “a true jazz classic,” and wrote: “The true worth of Jewel in the Lotus is that perhaps no other bandleader at the time could bring together players from such different backgrounds and relationships to his own musical development and make them interact with one another with material that is scored so closely and whose dynamics and tensions are so pronounced and steady… This album sounds as timeless and adventurous in the present as the day it was released.”

Track listing:
All compositions by Bennie Maupin

“Ensenada” – 8:15
“Mappo” – 8:30
“Excursion” – 4:52
“Past + Present = Future” – 1:52
“The Jewel in the Lotus” – 10:02
“Winds of Change” – 1:30
“Song for Tracie Dixon Summers” – 5:19
“Past Is Past” – 3:57

Personnel:
Bennie Maupin – saxophones, flute, bass clarinet, voice, glockenspiel
Herbie Hancock – acoustic and electric pianos
Buster Williams – bass
Billy Hart – drums (right channel)
Freddie Waits – drums, marimba (left channel)
Bill Summers – percussion
Charles Sullivan – trumpet on “Mappo” and “Excursion”

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Released: 1974
Recorded: March 1974
Studio: Record Plant
New York City
Length 44:17
Label ECM 1043 ST
Producer Manfred Eicher