“All of the stars were aligned on this night at the Village Underground, a truly cosmic all-star sextet took the stage and blew all of the minds in attendance. What we have left is a 70+ minute CD which you should be holding in your hands to help you enter another world, healing music for all of those who need to be healed, whether they recognize it or not. This is the sh*t! What I love about this disc and that concert is that the band takes their time, slowly building upon a firm foundation, one great solo at a time. What I find so interesting is that Muñoz inspires his bandmates to play their best, better than they often play with their own bands, since Tisziji is filled with that burning, inner-flame. Whenever Pharoah or Ravi take solos, Tisziji and Paul exchange lines, pushing each other and the soloists higher and higher. Besides the great sax solos, the interplay between the guitar, piano, bass and drums is consistently astonishing. For those of you who need that spirit/force/jazz tapestry, this is your medicine to take it and heal yourself!” —Bruce Gallanter (August 2, 2013)

“Paul Shaffer has accomplished a great service for all of us. He found me in late 1969 and joined me in 2003 for this summit level of spiritual musical creation. He has been completely true to this friendship and this musical practice. This creative work is the true liberated side of the musical spectrum of performance and creative realization. It has been and remains both joyous and self-transcended. I recommend to all beings that they try to liberate themselves in this way. I have named this process Heart First. If this were the priority of the world, what a great place this would be. Key to this realization is accepting the divinity of the Heart and realizing that the kingdom within is simply and only pure love itself. It seems that few can be as still and deep as this is, and I thank Paul for rising to this occasion in making this music of the Heart First a reality. Paul was truly joyous at this event with Ravi Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Rashied Ali, and Don Pate. It’s quite remarkable that after 43 years, Paul’s attitude about this music is still so positive, so fresh, so wild, and so deep. Thank you Paul for loving this music the way you do. Thank you for sharing this grace of collaboration with me and all beings. Let us do it again and again, going deeper every time, until all there is is silence...the profound and incomprehensible. Hu Blessings” —Tisziji Muñoz (June 10, 2013)