For Us All (Yoka Boka) - Remastered Jeff Majors

• 1 Yasmeen 05:31
• 2 Chant 02:26
• 3 Let It Be 04:11
• 4 (If I Can) Help Somebody 07:50
• 5 Summertime 05:10
• 6 Nomad 05:06
• 7 Room 400 04:46
• 8 Baby Daughter 03:37
• 9 For Us All (Yoka Boka) 05:08
• Total Runtime 43:45

Info for For Us All (Yoka Boka) - Remastered

Invisible City Editions reissues a highly sought after and impossibly rare 1986 private-press spiritual jazz album from Washington D.C. harpist Jeff Majors. Majors was a devoted personal student of Alice Coltrane’s for three years as a teenager, taking harp and spiritual instruction at her home in the Bay Area just before she established her renowned ashram in Huntington, California. Following his tutelage with Coltrane, he returned to the East Coast, joining Sun Ra acolyte Brother Ah's ensemble The Sounds Of Awareness, playing on their classic spiritual jazz album Key To Nowhere.

Inspired by a trip to West Africa’s Gambia, For Us All (Yoka Boka) and its title track finds Majors coming fully into his own as an artist, fusing the lofty sensibilities he absorbed from the cosmic jazz masters Coltrane and Brother Ah with an accessible sonic palette drawn from the synth-driven electronic sounds of 1980’s soul music, as well as traditional African instruments. Each song on this album is an inspired vision of the personal and the devotional via the harp’s universal glistening tones, shimmering synths, LinnDrum machine and African percussion. The album opener “Yasmeen” is a pulsing, arpeggiated journey that is genre-defying and absolutely transcendent in its glissando-driven momentum, setting the stage for the album’s unique nexus of sounds, all led by the refined virtuosity of Majors’ harp playing. The rest of the album’s originals and covers (check the sublime arrangement of the Gershwins’ “Summertime”) are equally as unique and compelling. Includes an extensive liner note booklet with a lengthy new interview with Majors by Prince Language.

Jeff Majors, harp

Digitally remastered

Jeff Majors
As a native of Washington, D.C., music flowed throughout the household of JeffMajors courtesy of his mother Annie P. Fitzgerald - a talented jazz trumpeter in her own right with a circle of friends which included legendary actress and singer Pearl Bailey.

At age 15, JeffMajors had a dream in which he saw himself strumming the harp; an instrument he had never played before. Inspired, he used the dream to fuel his passion for music and literally change the course of his life. With the harp hand-made for him by a local music store owner, he began to pursue mastery of the instrument.

He spent the next several years in Los Angeles studying under the wings of jazz pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane, wife of jazz legend John Coltrane. He later teamed up with legendary jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. He returned to the Washington D.C. area, where he formed several jazz bands and became a radio personality at Radio One. This led to the opportunity to host "Sunday Joy," the semi syndicated inspirational and gospel on-air ministry that can be heard on Magic 95.9 and 102.3 in the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia area. From there he evolved into the vice presidency of gospel music programming for the Radio One network of stations.

Hailed as an inspirational jazz / gospel producer and renowned harp master JeffMajors has touched the hearts of millions through his television program, TV One's "Gospel of Music with JeffMajors," along with his faith-affirming, soul-stirring Sacred series and outreach initiatives that include his annual nationwide free concert tour "JeffMajors Blankets for the Homeless," and most recently "Hiphop for the Homeless." During which there are performances and provision of clothing, blankets and other items necessary for surviving life on the streets.

After being welcomed to perform on her talk show, media mogul Oprah Winfrey stated that the music of JeffMajors, "...energizes my faith and transports my spirit. For me, it is the best way to start my day." And when he was hand-picked by the Martin Luther King Family to perform at Coretta Scott King's memorial service, JeffMajors demonstrated that his music could console a nation.

Today, he appears in more than 40 million homes through "The Gospel of Music with JeffMajors," the flagship program on TV One. The hit show provides a venue for diverse well-known and emerging talent, and has showcased some of the biggest names in the industry, including James Ingram, Mavis Staples, Shirley Caesar, Yolanda Adams and Gerald Levert in his last television appearance.

The upcoming project will be the JeffMajors Sacred series of the "Epistles," which will include for the first time ever a DVD of some of the most memorable performances of JeffMajors on the Harp. Thanks to the popular success of the series, the release is eagerly anticipated within the industry of inspirational/Jazz music and by fans alike. It is projected to meet the expectations set by his acclaimed Sacred 2000, of which Billboard said: "One listen will make believers out of even stone-cold cynics."

JeffMajors is also focusing on his humanitarian efforts as an activist for the nation's homeless through his non-profit organization "The Network of Doves." This includes a continuation of his annual "JeffMajors Blankets for the Homeless" and the newly established initiative "Hiphop for the Homeless," where he has collaborated with some of today's emerging artist and youth in the inner cities to bring awareness of and help to the homeless communities around the country.

In a career marked by industry achievement, JeffMajors says that the dream of that 15-year-old boy strumming the harp is still unfolding.

This album contains no booklet.