Formed c. 1971

The Visitors were a Philadelphia spiritual jazz quintet led by brothers Earl Grubbs on alto saxophone and Carl Grubbs on tenor saxophone, formed in the early 1970s after both had studied with John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy as young musicians in Philadelphia. The core ensemble included pianist Joe Bonner, bassist John Lee and drummer Sherman Ferguson, who was later replaced by Victor Lewis for the final album "Motherland." Working within modal frameworks and allowing space for extended collective improvisation, the group developed a sound rooted in the late-Coltrane tradition while finding its own conversational language between the two horns. They released four albums between 1972 and 1976: "Neptune" (Cobblestone, 1972), "In My Youth" (Cobblestone/Muse, 1973), "Rebirth" (Muse, 1974) and "Motherland" (Muse, 1975, released 1976), the last produced by Michael Cuscuna and widely regarded as the group's finest statement. After disbanding the group remained largely forgotten for decades, their original pressings commanding increasingly high secondary market prices as the spiritual jazz collector community discovered them. Carl Grubbs remains active as a performer.