The Clash of Civilizations and Sufi Choir

Hippies + Free Jazz + Psychedelia + Youth Choir + Islam

Generated around 1969 by Bay Area Sufi Mystic “Sufi Sam” Lewis, the Sufi Choir’s album attest to an odd yet strangely comfortable mixing of cultures that should be instructive for these bellicose East meets West days. For culture warriors this charming bit of esoterica might appear as a huh?

The back side of this, their 1973 album gives shout outs to:

Northern California Youth Choir, Ether, saints, prophets, Archie Shepp, Aretha Franklin, Carl Shapiro, Asasvati, Lao-Tsu, Children, angels, jinns, Hu, ancients, Sarmad, Dylan Thomas, flowers, Hassan, Hasrat Khaja, Zoroaster, form, Pythagoras, Paul, Air, Marin, Fire, void, Vocha, La Monte Young, Parents, Otis Redding, Joan Baez, Lester Young, Mozart, The Rishis, Roshi, Rabbi Lama, Mansur, Ravi Shankar, Earth, Bob Dylan, Mount Tamalpais, Sakir Hussain, ALLAH, The Golden Gate, Yeats, Rumi, The Holy Spirit, Ali Akbar Khan, Baba Ram Dass, Miles Davis, Pete Seger, The Three Kings, The Incredible String Band, Ajari, Rocky Mountains, The Arizona Desert, The Grateful Dead, Ruth St. Denis, Moses, Orpheus, All those Known or Unknown, Cecil Taylor, Bilie Holiday ….