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sEbastian Desert Fairy Princess

(Nimbus West) 1981

The haunting last line on flautist Adele Sebastian’s Desert Fairy Princess is “Will my music do anything for you?” Sebastian died from lupus in her late twenties after contributing many years of music to the Pan African People’s Arkestra, and this album is a document of her unique perspective and sound. Desert Fairy Princess is atmospheric flute music with an overwhelming sense of groove. Sebastian was a member of Horace Tapscott’s Arkestra, an Afrocentric collective dedicated to cultural transformation. Along with African dress, hairstyles, instruments, and African names were new sonic relationships—scales, tones, and tempos. Call it looking blackward if you want, but one outcome of this movement was the pursuit of new sounds. As a result of their increasingly diverse palate of influences, Sebastian and the other musicians were able to create a record that sounds simultaneously ancient and ahead of its time.

The fellow Arkestra mates that gathered to help create this album add enormous texture to the sound. The artists push and pull on the conventions of their instruments to make radical/traditional/inspirational music. Bobby West provides manic piano lines to mix with the frequently down-tempo flute. “Belize” highlights Rickey Kelley’s marimba, coupled with the stride pulse of West. Cymbals nestle amongst piano lines; with

Daa’oud (aka Daoude) Woods and Billy Higgins showing respectful percussive restraint, the space is open for the other instruments to really go.

The title track features Sebastian etching flute lines over a seemingly ambivalent Middle Eastern tone. Billy Higgins provides drum work that is somehow both patient and deeply pungent.

Their version of McCoy Tyner’s “Man from Tanganyika” rips with Woods’s percussion hook and Roberto Miranda’s teasing bass foundation. Throughout Desert Fairy Princess, Sebastian dances, thunders, and lilts through the tunes; her work is both the highlight and the foundation of the album. The record was produced and released by Tom Albach, who started Nimbus West Records after approaching Tapscott and persuading him to record. After recording the Arkestra, Nimbus West produced several solo albums from Tapscott affiliates—including Desert Fairy Princess. Albach describes Sebastian, who selected all the tunes and the personnel for the album, as “a woman of incredible taste and talent.” Nimbus West pressed only one thousand copies of the LP, although the resilient independent label continues to sell CD copies.

“Will my music do anything for you?” The throaty gospel whisper over Roberto Miranda’s bass repeats the question. Playing the record is the only reasonable reply to Sebastian’s inquiry.

Amplifying and listening to the sound etched in the grooves of this vinyl is tribute to a life lived and a heartfelt, affirmative response to Adele Sebastian’s question.

. Maxwell Schnurer