Rexorcist It's true that by this point, the world of spiritual jazz has been almost completely explored to its fullest potential. We've been all around the universe with it, from the highest reaches of space, to the psychedelia of Hindustani music and to the gloriously tribal sounds of African music. The later here is lightly replicated by English jazz band Maisha on theit debut album, There Is a Place.

Lemme tell you, I usually feel really good about a band that's able to replicate the vibes of an older group. This brings me back to my recent discoery of the genre tag "pizza thrash," which is used to describe modern thrash with an 80's feel. My mind immediately went to Havok. Maisha is a bit like that. I feel right back with the classic acts like Pharoah Sanders here, because the band's understanding of delivering a spiritual presence is practically perfect. From an atmosphere point, their debut probably rivals the power of Alice Coltrane's jazz AND new age classics. Having said that, I think the actual "compositions" here are more simple than the classics, and a little lackluster in comparison. The entire time I was soaking in the heavenly vibes, I also felt that the rhythms were ones I had heard before.

Maisha's got big things going for them if they keep up their strong presence and improve their imagination. This debut shows a lot of promise for this group and I'll be eagerly following their career from now on. This has a perfect presence about it, but it needs a bit more rhythmic flair.