“Cosmic Forest”, Nicola Conte’s latest compilation is a journey into the vaults of Musik Produktion Schwarzwald (MPS). The German label has a catalogue of approximately 500 albums filled with Spiritual jazz composed by premiere musicians from around the world. MPS founder Hans Georg Brunner recognized the wave of 60s spiritual jazz and re-positioned the label to reflect the trend. It must have been a daunting task to choose from this collection but Conte has done an impressive job. The hypnotic “Evolution” is filled with intense rhythms by saxophonist Nathan Davis who lived in Germany during the sixties. “Revelation” is another highlight. Influenced by Eastern mysticism trumpter Hannibal Marvin Peterson’s blistering solos are augmented by swirling piano melodies and percussion. The meditative “Soledad” De Murcia” has a Latin feel courtesy of Pianist Michael Naura and vibraphonist Wolfgang Schluter. There’s no filler here, just a superb collection of tunes you’ll want to get familiar with from an underrated label
