American band The Pyramids first came together back in 1972, disbanding just five years later. Fate can sometimes make you wait: the band finally reformed in 2012 and their classic Afro-jazz style holds true on An Angel Fell (2018). Led by tenor sax player Idris Ackamoor, a Chicago native, The Pyramids move through throwback grooves, forging a sound that slides in comfortably alongside the surge of reissues that have flowed out of West Africa in recent years with a little piece of Sun Ra’s spirit thrown in for good measure. The screeching brass on “Soliloquy For Michael Brown” cries for the 18-year-old fatally shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. But An Angel Fell is not a doomed piece: the quick-hand guitar licks and upbeat percussion of the afrobeat-style number “Tinoge” is a piece to get bodies moving, while the 11-minute “Warrior Dance” is an environmental-themed number to save Mother Earth.
