Knowledge of Self

Tenor saxophonist Billy Harper’s Knowledge of Self, released on DENON, captures the spiritual jazz fervor of the mid-1970s with muscular, searching solos and a rhythm section locked into deep grooves. Harper’s tone—thick and assertive—cuts through lush orchestration and modal chord changes, channeling both Coltrane’s harmonic ambition and the funkier impulses of contemporary soul-jazz. A document of post-bop intensity when the genre was at its most exploratory.