Highlife (Sonny Sharrock album)

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]

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

• Highlife at Discogs (list of releases)