Edwin Birdsong - What It Is (1971)

Edwin Birdsong's brilliant if deeply idiosyncratic cosmic jazz-funk opus What It Is emerges from the same mindspace that birthed frequent collaborator Roy Ayers' concurrent Polydor dates. While more political than Ayers -- dig "The Uncle Tom Game" and "It Ain't No Fun Being a Welfare Recipient" -- Birdsong is also less grounded in reality, and weird-beard groovers like the club classic "Pretty Brown Skin" and "Mongoose" seem to originate from a different plane altogether. Moreover, Birdsong embraces the spiritual dimension of his vision with true-believer fervor, yielding compositions like "My Father Preaches That God Is the Father" and "When a Newborn Baby Is Born, The World Gets One More Chance." What It Is is a deeply personal statement of uncommon sincerity and scope -- there's nothing else quite like it.