Highlife (Sonny Sharrock album)

Highlife is a studio album by American jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock. It was recorded at Jersey City's Quantum Sound Studio in October 1990 and released later that same year by Enemy Records.^[1][2]

Highlife
Studio album by Sonny Sharrock Band
Released	1990 (1990)
Recorded	October 1990 (1990-10)
Studio	Quantum Sound Studio in Jersey City
Genre	Jazz fusion, pop, rock
Length	44:18
Label	Enemy
Producer	Sonny Sharrock, Francis Manzella
Sonny Sharrock chronology
Live in New York (1989) Highlife (1990) Faith Moves (1991)

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave Highlife an "A" and called it a "gorgeously straightforward guitar record" from someone whose musical principles reflect "a genius son" of Jimmy Smith and Jimi Hendrix. He said Sharrock expresses his themes in a dignified manner, with variation in timbre more so than in harmony, while committing to both cacophony and melody in his exploration of jazz and rock traditions.^[3] Christgau named it the sixth best album of the year in his list for the Pazz & Jop critics poll.^[4] In The Philadelphia Inquirer, jazz critic Francis Davis hailed Highlife as "instrumental-pop at its most energetic and uncontrived".^[5] She felt the "vivacious" record was more "pop" than "jazz" but nonetheless a "persuasive argument for the advantages of maturity" in which Sharrock embraced "simplicity and directness, qualities you'd never have expected from him twenty-five years ago".^[6]

In The Penguin Guide to Jazz (1992), Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave Highlife three out of four stars and found it more polished than Sharrock's previous records but with "bass-heavy" jazz fusion exercises that showed potential for more in the future.^[7] AllMusic's Steve Huey was less enthusiastic, giving it three out of five stars and deeming it "something of a transitional album, catching Sharrock in the midst of figuring out where to take his music next, yet that searching quality makes it a compelling listen for fans".^[8]

Track listing

All music is composed by Sonny Sharrock, except "All My Trials" and "Highlife" which are Traditional arranged by Sharrock, "Venus/Upper Egypt" by Pharoah Sanders, "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane, and "Kate", which was written by Sharrock and inspired by "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush.^[8]

No.	Title	Length
1.	"No More Tears"	5:38
2.	"All My Trials"	8:01
3.	"Chumpy"	5:40
4.	"Highlife"	4:14
5.	"Kate (Variations on a Theme by Kate Bush)"	5:51
6.	"Venus/Upper Egypt"	8:38
7.	"Your Eyes"	5:38
8.	"Giant Steps"	0:38

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.^[9]

• Charles Baldwin – bass guitar
• Lance Carter, Abe Speller – drums
• Francis Manzella – recording, mixing and co-producer
• Michael Knuth – executive producer
• Sonny Sharrock – guitar, production
• Dave Snider – Korg M1, Korg Wavestation