New World Generation: One of a Kind (Now-Again)

• November 29, 2011

IN THE STORE:
NEW WORLD GENERATION - ONE OF A KIND

Now-Again Records presents New World Generation, a collection of rare and unreleased soul music by the cult New England ensemble.

Presented as a 2CD and as a 2LP; both formats contain extensive liner notes with rare photographs and ephemera.
 
The Now-Again team first got a taste of the New World Generation when Phil Morrison, bassist for avant-garde, Boston-based jazzers Stark Reality, sent us a copy of New World Generation’s solitary recorded document: a five song EP that the band privately released in 1982. Echoes of the Roy Ayers-produced RAMP sessions and the precise yet sensual vibes of the foundation known as Earth, Wind and Fire rang throughout.

Intrigued, Egon put in a call to New World Generation’s bandleader, Lekan Parsons and found that he had recorded more music in the years leading up to the New World Generation EP. But he’d recorded with different ensembles - he promised to dig out his masters and send them to Now-Again headquarters for consideration. It took years for him to collate the various components of the first phase of his recording career - which stretched from New York to Boston over the course of a decade – but when he did send the music, it became apparent that an anthology was necessary. The songs he’d recorded with the Universal Rhythms and Orison ensembles were harbingers of the sophisticated soul he’d proffer with New World Generation.

They were winsome, hopeful songs – and their existence offered Now-Again the chance to present a cohesive album. This album’s title references the faith that carried Parsons through the difficult and demoralizing times accomplished musicians like he and his friends experienced in a post-disco world. Now-Again is proud to offer New World Generation’s new world vision now.

Note: 2CD contains music not available on 2LP.