New - Sharps, Jesse & The Wu Ensemble - Self Titled - LP

This is the first ever vinyl release of Jesse Sharps And The Wu Ensemble, recorded in 1999 at HD 800 Acht Spur, in Heidelberg, Germany. It is a limited pressing of 400 on blue vinyl, featuring the eclectic and dynamic group Jesse performed with throughout Europe during his years living abroad in Germany. - Tom Paige (A&R)

For the majority of his years Jesse René Sharps has been a soundcatcher, from the rhythms of Old Africa to the tangled musical networks of Old Europe. he periodically vanishes from his HQ of Leimert Park - the Alamo of Afro Los Angeles, gentrification licking at its borders - only to reappear like a tie-dyed specter in its village green, lounging on a bench in wraparound sunglasses, practicing on his soprano sax, collecting musicians as he goes for recording projects. In 2005, he assembled a 25-person ensemble called The Gathering that was meant to link the seasoned elders of Los Angeles' jazz scene with its up-and-comers. That latter group included a young, then-unknown saxophonist named Kamasi Washington.

Years before he was Leimert royalty, in the baking August of 1965, thirteen-year-old Jesse was lugging around a rag 'n' bone wagon through the streets of Watts, pillaging the "hot wood" (still warm riot debris) that he could then resell around the neighborhood. He was spending more and more time wandering the streets to escape a rough home life (Jesse reasons he spent more time in the home of his music teacher Milton Hall, than his own). Turning onto the ruins of 103rd Street, he came across a street orchestra, some ten to twelve players strong in flowing dashikis and filigreed naturals, playing before the smoking embers of a furniture showroom. A pianist friend of the neighborhood had clued him into the ever growing "guerilla jazz band" dubbed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and the towering figure at its helm, pianist/composer Horace Tapscott.

Within a decade, Jesse, along with fellow reedman Fuasi Abdul-Khaliq, would lead the most disciplined and productive incarnation of "the Ark" (His nickname "Sergeant Sharps" demonstrated his organizational acumen). It was where he wrote many of the complex searching songs that would become Ark staples: "Peyote Song #3," "Macrame," "Desert Fairy Princess," McKowsky's First Fifth." But it was his experience in the EU, where he relocated to years later, that informed the compositions on the original 1999 recording of this album. He spent years playing in punk bands, ska bands, funk bands, reggae bands, jazz bands, military bands, accordion bands - even a digeridoo band in Northern Germany. During this time, he collected many of the musicians who made up what he calls his "gypsy modal"Wu Ensemble, including Germans Andreas Bayless, Tilman Engelhardt, and Jesse Günther; Venezuelan Dolma Lima; and Sardinian Mario Fadani. "We were like a family, we just sort of found each other," Jesse says, "Nobody tried to play just one style. I told them, 'Just play your own self.'"

And did they ever. On the time-shifting auditory travelogue "Palermo," Jesse's snake charmer clarinet and Bayless's meditative guitar wrap themselves around Fandani's thick, reggae-inflected bass. The hypnotic "Desert Fairy Princess,"Jesse's lasting contribution to SoCal jazz and tribute to late Ark flautist/muse Adele Sebastian (Engelhardt takes the flute honors), is a puzzle-box masterpiece of reverence and mood (Don't just believe us: Quincy Jones has it on his playlist). The staccato, Latin-flavored "Mrafu," written by one of Jesse's favorite collaborators, the late pianist Nathaniel Morgan, demonstrates its composer's love of vamp and motif. Bayless's rustic, flamenco-tinged guitar kicks off the serpentine swing of "Dial B for Barabara," a Tapscott composition that echoes the floating woodwind trill of the Ark. But the Wu Ensemble's most beguiling offering is for last: Jesse's accordion breathes a spirited Balkan jog on "Ghost Riders on the Range," which incorporates Cali surf-rock, whirling-dervish gypsy reels, and Jamaican sound-system groove in less than four minutes. "I learned that song when I was taking accordion lessons in Germany," Jesse recalls. "But there's no info on that song, nothing on the composer R.C. Robinson. Just this obscure tune that none of us ever knew the origin of."

Ghosts. Indeed. Now listen to them dance.
- Matthew Duersten

Jesse Sharps - tenor + soprano sax, clarinet, bassoon, accordion, Irish flute
Timian Engelhardt - soprano + baritone sax, flute
Andreas Bayless - guitars
Mario Fadani - bass
Dolam Lima - percussion
Jesse Günther - percussion
Jason Bell - guitar, bass, drums (Ghost Riders on the Range)

Produced by Jesse Sharps & Stefan Eichinger (aka Jason Mason)
Executive Producer: Frank Fuchs
Recorded, Mixed, Mastered by Stefan Eichinger (HD 800 Acht Spur)
Recorded 1999 at HD 800 Acht Spur, Heidelberg, Germany
Album Design by Lori Precious
Liner Notes by Matthew Duersten
A&R, Distribution - Tom Paige

Dedicated to the memory of Horace Tapscott