he album title is apt, as this was saxman Rudolph Johnson’s secondalbum for the Black Jazz label (and this reissue marks only the secondtime this 1973 album has been released on vinyl)! But more importantly,the quality of the music it contains renders the more common, Messianicmeaning of the phrase “the second coming” equally applicable. Saxmanand bandleader Rudolph Johnson never attained the commercial successof some of his contemporaries, but his fans consider him the rightfulheir to John Coltrane’s improvisational genius. And with keyboardist KirkLightsey in the band for this go-round (we already reissued Johnson’svery fine 1971 Black Jazz album Spring Rain), sparks are gonna fly,starting right off with the cookin’ album opener “The Traveler,” whichif you close your eyes will definitely bring to mind Coltrane’s classicquartet circa the early ‘60s. Indeed, unlike most of the other releaseson the Black Jazz label, The Second Coming barely nods to the fusionand soul jazz trends that were sweeping jazz at the time. Instead, thisis expressive, free improvisation at its best, beautifully recorded byproducer Gene Russell and deserving of a much wider audience than itfound the first time. Newly remastered and annotated!

• 1. The Traveler
• 2. Time and Space
• 3. The Highest Pleasure
• 4. The Water Bearer
• 5. The Second Coming