Duke Edwards & The Young Ones (3) ‎– Is It Too Late?

Percussionist Duke Edwards, once of one of Sun Ra's many Arkestras, formed The Young Ones in the late '60s. They recorded three albums worth of material, but Prestige only put out this one release, which is a shame as it's a really unique and quite challenging listen. There's a few styles going on on here, but the best way to describe this album is as being totally righteous. Duke Edwards was obviously very troubled about the state of the world back then and needed to excersise that frustration through the medium of music. One track is an exception to this, "Black Elephant", this is just a total free form-jazz workout with endless guitar soloing going on - the real weak point of the album for me. However, the other two tracks are much more interesting. The main feel sways between folky jazz and deep spiritual bluesy soul. On top of that you have Duke Edwards speaking at you, ranting at you, screeching at you, even preaching at you, and with so much passion that you sense this guy certainly was feeling the pain of what he was talking about. There are moments when he's so insistent, tortured and really wrapped up in the message he's imparting, that I swear he's actually crying. This is a really unique and amazing one-off album, just be careful if you're too empathetic, it might hurt.