An album recorded and mixed July 1973 at Schumacher's Studios. This is the remastered 2012 issue. A limited edition 180 gram release. Fully remastered from the original tapes. A re-issue of one of the 1970s album taken from the trilogy by Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids. As students at Antioch college, Ohio, alto saxophonist Idris Ackamoor, flautist Margaux Simmons and bass player Kimathi Asante created three lasting monuments in sound Lalibela, King of Kings, and Birth / Speed / Merging, a trio of albums produced without any label backing or distribution between 1972 and 1976. Their music is unique among the varied canon of avant-garde and experimental music of 1970s America: high intensity African-styled percussion topped with songs, chants, and horns, laced with African instruments and arranged into long, flowing suites that surge and roll. The debut album by the Pyramids was inspired by the group's visit to the Lalibela monastery in Egypt, and was recorded in Yellow Springs Ohio in early 1973. Drawing on the teachings of Cecil Taylor and the influence of John Coltrane, combined with a barrage of intense percussion, the album evolves over several long-form pieces, Initially only 500 copies were pressed and sold to friends and followers in the local area.
- A1 Jazz Is Merely The Negroes Cry Of Joy & Suffering
- A2 Introit - Joy N’ Suff’rin
- A3 Jazz Is The Musical Expression Of The Triumph Of The Negroes Spirit
- A4 Kyrie Eleison - Lawd Hav’ Merci
- A5 This Endless Repetition Is Like A Chain Around The Spirit. And Is A Reflection Of The Denial Of A Fu
- A6 Dias Ire - Chain Around The Spirit
- A7 Another Restraining Factor In Jazz Are The Changes
- A8 Tuba Mirum - The Changes
- B10 Rex Tremendae – Futureless Future
- B11 The Negro Transforms America’s Image Of Him Into A Transport Of Joy!
- B12 Recordare - Recall The Joy
- B13 Jazz Reflects The Improvised Life Thrust Upon The Negro
- B14 Confutatis - Repression
- B15 Through Spirituals, Through The Blues, Then Through Jazz We Made A Memory Of Our Past And A Promise
- B16 Lacrimosa - Weeping Our Lady Of Sorrow
- B17 Because Jazz Is The One Element In American Life Where Whites Must Be Humble To The Negro
- B9 The Negro Experiences The Endless Daily Humiliation Of American Life Which Bequeaths Him A Futureles
- C18 Offerturium - Hostias - Humility
- C19 Only When Whites Have Paid The Price In Suffering To Be The Negroes Equal
- C20 Sanctus - Holy, Holy, Holy
- D21 The Jazz Body Is Dead But The Spirit Of Jazz Is Alive
- D22 Agnus Dei - Jazz Is Dead!
- D24 Long Tone For Rayna Golding (A Binti Zawadi Our Future)