Your Favorite Spiritual Jazz LP’S

[NateBizzo]

There are so many but here are my favorite current top 5:-Ambiance "Ebun" Da-Mon RecordsInfluenced by the modal jazz of John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner and Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Ambiance was an excellent but little known post-bop group that was active in Los Angeles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ambiance reflected the spiritual outlook of its founder and leader Daoud Abubakar Balewa, a saxophonist/flutist who also played African and Latin percussion and was heavily influenced by world music. Ambiance recorded several LPs for Daoud Abubakar Balewa's Da-Mon label in the late 1970s and early 1980s--including Ebun, Drift Up to Space, Tight and Tidy and Into A New Journey--before breaking up and moving back to Nigeria. I Spoke to some musicians who played with Daoud and they all said that he sacrificed and ate dead chickens before each session. The track "Turnaround" is a total standout with the later date allowing for some acceptable synth moments.-Infinite Sound S/T Arch RecordsGreat LP includiong members of the Son's & Daughter's of Light, put out on the Berkley labe Arch. Not a difficult LP to find, but one that is tough to let go of. I've really been enjoying this lately.-Positive Force w/ Ade Olutunji "Oracy" PamojaSpoken word spiritual-ness out of Detroit. Entire LP is killer in my mind. Aleit doesn't like this record. Personally this can stand next to any spiritual Jazz LP and hold it's out. There is even a funk track with a break, but the militant spoken word tracks are what do it for me.-Harold McKinney "VOICES AND RHYTHM OF THE CREATIVE PROFILE" TribeA classic. I got my copy for a reasonable price from that Knicker Chris. Many a good chune and worth the price that it goes for. Their version of "Fredom Jazz Dance" is probably my favorite version.-Electric Ninja Group/Sunship Ensemble "Pacific Rim" RCITwo different groups putting down a magnificent piece of music. This entire LP is killer, lots of far east influences but the actual music itself is quite dreamy. No vocals but that doesn't really matter. There is even some fuzz on it towards the end of the Ninja Side.

What are some of your favorite Spiritual Jazz LP's?

 

[DenmarkVZ]

Could somebody plaese differentiate "spiritual" from "free" jazz?

I've always had the feeling it's beat head code for free jazz that you can like. Not to get at Nate, but some of that shit you listed is pretty OUT (free) in my book.

 

Light of Saba LP's

 

[Soulhawk]

Jeanne Lee 'Conspiracy' on Earthforms


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[NateBizzo]

Could somebody plaese differentiate "spiritual" from "free" jazz?

I've always had the feeling it's beat head code for free jazz that you can like. Not to get at Nate, but some of that shit you listed is pretty OUT (free) in my book.

Handcorkscrew could probably elaborate, but to me the difference is that free jazz has no center holding or consistent pattern to a song, spiritual jazz is melodious usually, with a distinct groove that doesn't spazz out.

 

[Soulhawk]

Could somebody plaese differentiate "spiritual" from "free" jazz?

I've always had the feeling it's beat head code for free jazz that you can like. Not to get at Nate, but some of that shit you listed is pretty OUT (free) in my book.

'spiritual' is shorthand for 'sounds like Pharoah Sanders 'Karma'...

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[Jonny_Paycheck]

I thought spiritual was shorthand for "I can listen to this in the morning while I gaze out upon the Vermont mountains and drink fair trade coffee and dream of fresh powder."

 

[DenmarkVZ]

Could somebody plaese differentiate "spiritual" from "free" jazz?

I've always had the feeling it's beat head code for free jazz that you can like. Not to get at Nate, but some of that shit you listed is pretty OUT (free) in my book.

Handcorkscrew could probably elaborate, but to me the difference is that free jazz has no center holding or consistent pattern to a song, spiritual jazz is melodious usually, with a distinct groove that doesn't spazz out.
But you can still have screeching/shronking saxes on top?

re: Ph. Sanders. Some songs on Thembi are about as free as you can get.

 

[faux_rillz]

spiritual jazz is melodious usually

Could somebody explain the difference between "melodious" and "melodic"?

Thankyou, plaese, yes. No jpeg.

 

[NateBizzo]

Could somebody plaese differentiate "spiritual" from "free" jazz?





I've always had the feeling it's beat head code for free jazz that you can like. Not to get at Nate, but some of that shit you listed is pretty OUT (free) in my book.

Handcorkscrew could probably elaborate, but to me the difference is that free jazz has no center holding or consistent pattern to a song, spiritual jazz is melodious usually, with a distinct groove that doesn't spazz out.




But you can still have screeching/shronking saxes on top?





re: Ph. Sanders. Some songs on Thembi are about as free as you can get.







There can be screeching and spazzing out as long as its over a consistent groove, whether that's a bass line or a drumbeat. Somebody needs to be consistant while other are tweaking.

I thought spiritual was shorthand for "I can listen to this in the morning while I gaze out upon the Vermont mountains and drink fair trade coffee and dream of fresh powder."

This is also true.

 

[Soulhawk]

I thought spiritual was shorthand for "I can listen to this in the morning while I gaze out upon the Vermont mountains and drink fair trade coffee and dream of fresh powder."

"New!!! private-press jazz without that nasty 'free' aftertaste..."

 

[leisurebandit]

 

[handcorkscrew]

I like that Infinite Sound LP, too. Very sparse setting, well recorded, bay area freak out. I'm amazed how many 70s things like this you can still find on the cheap.

I'll add on some with free jazz moves:

Andrew cyrille & maono - "celebration". Thee wackest cover of all of IPS LPs (lit up like a neon sign) but the best sounding. Ensemble setting with intense african hand percussion / spoken word action.

William Hooker - "is eternal life". Blistering free jazz session avec davids ware and murray.

Luna - "Space Swell". One of the jazz releases on Arhoolie. I snuck a track from this on to my mix for WAXING DEEP. (it's the last one, with the piano)

 

[Birdman9]

 

[NateBizzo]

You can usually get these for a reasonable price. I got Zoning on Ebay for Buy it now $9.99 a while back, and handcork hooked me up with the other. Both ill.

 

[Soulhawk]

On the modal jazz mass tip...

http://popsike.com/php/detaildata.php?itemnr=4021104765

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[faux_rillz]

I heard this was garabagio, though?

 

[handcorkscrew]

Could somebody plaese differentiate "spiritual" from "free" jazz?

I've always had the feeling it's beat head code for free jazz that you can like. Not to get at Nate, but some of that shit you listed is pretty OUT (free) in my book.

Handcorkscrew could probably elaborate, but to me the difference is that free jazz has no center holding or consistent pattern to a song, spiritual jazz is melodious usually, with a distinct groove that doesn't spazz out.
Tough. "spiritual jazz" is basically modal jazz with a modern flavor, coming out of the coltrane school of things. It seems to be one of those non-jazz terms that we use now to describe a certain kind of music, sans historical alegiances. Often in 4/4 without swinging. I see most folks use it to describe a "strata-east" kind of sound.

Free jazz has a strong avant-garde tradition in labels like actuel and ESP from the late 50s, which developed alongside modal jazz. Like nate said, it's more decentralized.... the musicians generally go with their own sense of meter and time signatures. So you get this information overload of 4 guys are sitting in a room doing their own thing.

 

[handcorkscrew]

You can usually get these for a reasonable price. I got Zoning on Ebay for Buy it now $9.99 a while back, and handcork hooked me up with the other. Both ill.

The great thing right now is a lot of this 70s small label jazz goes for pennies. maoano "celebration" I caught for $10 or so.

 

[drewnice]

Some of my readily available favorites:





??? Norman Connors - 'Dance of Magic'


??? Billy Gault - 'When Destiny Calls'


??? Doug Carn on Black Jazz (don't hate)


??? Stan Clarke - 'Children of Forever'


??? Charles Sullivan - 'Genesis'


??? Alice Coltrane - 'Journey In Satcidananda' and 'Ptah The El Daoud'


??? Pharoh Sanders on Impulse (Karma, Thembi, Live @ The East)


??? Leon Thomas - 'The Leon Thomas Album' & 'Spirits Known and Unknown'