Signals From Earth

Deluxe edition with two booklets, perfect replica of the original. Joining their rapidly growing catalog of radical gestures of creative sound, Holidays Records returns with one of their most important releases to date, the first ever vinyl reissue of Pygmy Unit’s “Signals From Earth”, a towering private press obscurity, originally released by the band in 1974. Blending Native American references into a body of sonority that draws on free improvisation, experimental electronic music, and Spiritual Jazz, it forges a singular and almost entirely unknown path, and stands almost entirely on its own in the history of west coast American jazz
A holy grail for a handful and an inevitable revelation for most, Holidays has truly upped the game with this masterstroke. First appearing on the San Francisco scene sometime during the early 1970s, almost nothing is know about the Pygmy Unit, a seven piece band that have been steered by Darrel De Vore, who contributed flute, bass, percussion, piano, and vocals to the band’s lone LP, had first appeared with its percussionist, Terry Wilson, within the psychedelic outfit, The Charlatans, who belonged to the legendary Family Dog scene
While undeniably jazz – riding a remarkable line between avant-garde electronic music, Spiritual Jazz, and free improvisation – the band was very much a product of the diverse creative ferment that developed in their hometown of San Francisco during the 1960s. Jim Pepper, a Native American tenor saxophonist who cut his teeth as a member of the Mal Waldron Quartet, played with Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, and numerous others, and produced the cult favourite, “Pepper’s Pow Wow”, for Embryo Records in 1971. John Celona, who contributes parts on sax, synthesizer, and percussion, would later go on to be regarded as an electronic composer of some note. Of the remaining members, saxophonist Frank Albright, bassoonist Ron Grunn, and percussionist Marvin Kirkland, very little else in know. It seems this LP is more or less all they recorded