Compost -

Compost was an American jazz-rock band from N.Y.C. that released the 1971–73 albums Take Off Your Body and Life Is Round on CBS/Columbia.

Members: Jack DeJohnette (vocals, keyboards, drums), Harold Vick (tenor saxophone, flute, bass violin, clarinet, piano), Jack Gregg (bass, guitar, vocals), Bob Moses (drums, vocals), Jumma Santos (congas, percussion)

Background

Compost formed in 1971 around a New York circle when drummer/keyboardist Jack DeJohnette built a cooperative with drummer/vocalist Bob Moses, saxophonist/flutist Harold Vick, bassist Jack Gregg, and percussionist Jumma Santos.

DeJohnette was born on August 9, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. He studied classical piano as a child and added drums in a high-school concert band. DeJohnette worked with Charles Lloyd’s quartet and Miles Davis’s electric band before Compost.

Vick was born on April 3, 1936, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. His uncle Prince Robinson gave Vick a clarinet when Vick was a teenager. Vick took up tenor saxophone at sixteen, played R&B dates, and studied psychology at Howard University.

Gregg grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and started bass at age fifteen. Gregg joined the Claude Thornhill Orchestra and spent two years on the road with that ensemble. Gregg moved to New York in 1964, studied with Frederick Zimmermann, and played with Roy Eldridge.

Bob Moses came from New York City. He began drums at age ten and added piano, vibes, and composition during early adolescence. Moses worked with Rahsaan Roland Kirk as a teenager, co-formed the Free Spirits with Larry Coryell, and then joined Gary Burton’s quartet.

Santos was born James P. Riley and used the name Juma Santos. He recorded on Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew and worked with Nina Simone, Ahmad Jamal, David Sanborn, Taj Mahal, and Roy Ayers.

DeJohnette set Compost as a cooperative. Columbia gave the group a four-record contract, and DeJohnette divided the deal across the five players. DeJohnette sent a tape of new material to his brother-in-law Rodney Herman in London. Martin Rushent and Brian Lane heard the material through the Yes organization, and Lane drew Columbia toward the group. The five musicians traveled to London and wrote material for the first record.

Compost

Compost released their self-titled debut album, also issued as Take Off Your Body, in 1972 on Columbia.

The album blends jazz-funk, blues pieces, group vocals, and percussion-dense ensemble passages, performed by drummer–keyboardist Jack DeJohnette, drummer–vocalist Bob Moses, saxophonist–flautist Harold Vick, bassist Jack Gregg, and percussionist Jumma Santos.

“Happy Peace” shifts DeJohnette to the kit while the surrounding titles center wah-tinted clavinet, organ, and vibes. Bob Moses holds the vocal mic inside loose, cryptic text patterns, and hand-struck accents thicken the rhythm bed.

A1. “Take Off Your Body” (3:00) – Moses
A2. “Thinkin’” (6:36) – DeJohnette
A3. “Bwaata” (4:51) – Moses, DeJohnette
A4. “Happy Peace” (6:50) – DeJohnette

B1. “Country Song” (2:31) – Gregg, DeJohnette
B2. “Sweet Berry Wine” (4:04) – DeJohnette, Moses, Vick, Santos, Gregg
B3. “Funky Feet” (4:31) – DeJohnette, Moses, Vick, Santos, Gregg
B4. “Inflation Blues” (7:09) – DeJohnette

Martin Rushent produced and recorded the album. Compost appeared in a Columbia sleeve with front-cover photography by Larry Clark, whose image shows repeated band figures beneath the Compost title and a printed track-title cluster.

Life Is Round

Compost released their second album, Life Is Round, in early 1973 on Columbia.

Round expands the core quintet with guitarists Roland Prince and Ed Finney. The album contains nine originals by Vick, DeJohnette, Moses, and Gregg. Select tracks feature singers Lou Courtney (“Moonsong”) and Jeanne Lee (“Life Is Round”).

“Seventh Period” cooks with Vick’s tenor line packed into a dense rhythm bed. “Moonsong” floats Lou Courtney’s vocal over chimes, piano, and flute, with the lyric target fixed on outer space. “Compost Festival” clatters through group voices, scraped accents, cowbell, whistle, and hand-struck color.

“The Ripper” cuts a wah-toned lead riff through vibraphone glint and clipped electric backing. “Buzzard Feathers” slides between a main riff and improvised passages, with wah-toned guitar stretched across the span. “Life Is Round” closes with Jeanne Lee’s voice inside a spacebound electric setting.

A1. “Seventh Period” (8:07) – Vick
A2. “Moonsong” (4:27) – Gregg
A3. “Compost Festival” (5:19) – DeJohnette
A4. “The Ripper” (3:53) – Vick

B1. “Buzzard Feathers” (6:22) – Vick
B2. “Changing Streams” (5:16) – DeJohnette
B3. “Mon Cherry Popsicool” (5:28) – Moses
B4. “Restless Wave” (4:19) – DeJohnette
B5. “Life Is Round” (3:31) – Moses

Compost and Lou Courtney produced the album. Wayne Tarnowski engineered the sessions. Life Is Round appeared in a sleeve designed by Ed Lee and Hiroshi Morishima with cover photography by Irene Kubota, whose image shows a stepped stone structure against a blue sky and cloud bank.

Discography: