I Love The Jazz My Man!

If there's one genre I've been obsessing about these past 2 years it's been jazz. As with some other people from my generation, I came into contact with jazz when I started looking after the source for my favourite modern day records. In this case I was on the hunt for the sample to the Motorbass classic 'Neptune'. After searching for the lyrics 'have you heard the latest news from Neptune?' I came across the very obscure source, Sun Ra's album Discipline 27-11 and the aptly titled track 'Neptune'.

Granted, an avant garde album by Sun Ra from one of his more experimental periods is probably not as good a way of coming into contact with jazz as Kind Of Blue for instance. However, I would get into this song heavily pretty much right away and right there my journey through the genre took off.

By now there's dozens and dozens of tracks I could post up to express my love for the genre, but for now I'll stick to 3 tracks.


Roy Haynes - Dorian

The part of the genre I'm into the most are probably the 50's/60's bop records. Just one of the many fine examples of the beauty of this genre is the following track by the talented drummer Roy Haynes. The beautiful piano playing of Ronnie Matthews just carries the song right away and every bit that gets added just suits the mood perfectly, Booker Ervin's playing on this album is just beautiful as well. It's kinda hard for me to describe exactly how this moves me, but it's just touching in every single way and this is music I could listen to for the rest of my life. There are so many more songs in this genre I could recommend, if you're interested just hit me up with a message and I'll be happy to send some more.


Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has A Master Plan

Next up is some more experimental jazz by one of my personal favourite artists, Pharoah Sanders. I've had my eye on this record in a local second hand store for a long time, but the guy selling it wants quite a bit of cash for it so for now I'll have to do with this (not so great) mp3 rip. Oh well, it'll give you a proper impression of the album. I'm not gonna attempt to write out a full review when there's already a fitting one on the allmusic.com website. However, I will say that this is probably a fairly accesible lp in the free jazz genre, it kinda shifts back and forth between wild explosions of sound and melody and more calm arrangements. Another example of a track that does this is 'Theme De Yoyo' by the Art Ensemble Of Chicago (though the wild arrangements are very limited there, it may be a better introduction to free-jazz), go check that out if you don't know about it yet, highly reccomended. I also like the spirituality and Coltrane inpsirations involved in the entire theme of this Pharoah Sanders album, it truly is a journey to listen to this record and one of the highlights of Sanders' carreer. If you're interested, here is the excellent review of the Karma album from the allmusic website:


"Pharoah Sanders' third album as a leader is the one that defines him as a musician to the present day. After the death of Coltrane, while there were many seeking to make a spiritual music that encompassed his ideas and yearnings while moving forward, no one came up with the goods until Sanders on this 1969 date. There are only two tracks on Karma, the 32-plus minute "The Creator Has a Master Plan" and the five-and-a-half-minute "Colours." The band is one of Sanders' finest, and features vocalist Leon Thomas, drummer Billy Hart, Julius Watkins, James Spaulding, a pre-funk Lonnie Liston Smith, Richard Davis, Reggie Workman on bass, and Nathaniel Bettis on percussion. "Creator" begins with a quote from "A Love Supreme," with a nod to Coltrane's continuing influence on Sanders. But something else emerges here as well: Sanders' own deep commitment to lyricism and his now inherent knowledge of Eastern breathing and modal techniques. His ability to use the ostinato became not a way of holding a tune in place while people soloed, but a manner of pushing it irrepressibly forward. Keeping his range limited (for the first eight minutes anyway), Sanders explores all the colors around the key figures, gradually building the dynamics as the band comps the two-chord theme behind with varying degrees of timbral invention. When Thomas enters at nine minutes, the track begins to open. His yodel frees up the theme and the rhythm section to invent around him. At 18 minutes it explodes, rushing into a silence that is profound as it is noisy in its approach. Sanders is playing microphonics and blowing to the heavens and Thomas is screaming. They are leaving the material world entirely. When they arrive at the next plane, free of modal and interval constraints, a new kind of lyricism emerges, one not dependent on time but rhythm, and Thomas and Sanders are but two improvisers in a sound universe of world rhythm and dimension. There is nothing to describe the exhilaration that is felt when this tune ends, except that "Colours," with Ron Carter joining Workman on the bass, was the only track that could follow it. You cannot believe it until you hear it."


Walter Bishop Jr - Speak Low

In closing here's a song by Walter Bishop Jr, who released some fine music on the legendary Black Jazz label (I especially like the track 'Our November' on the Coral Keys album, see if you can find that, you can also hear it on the flash intro on the Black Jazz website). Here he is featured with a more recent recording of one of his older songs that has his piano playing joined with the bass of Paul Brown and drums by Al Harewood, to briliant effect. Sometimes when I listen to solo piano records or records like this with the piano on the forefront I can get the feeling it's just background music or displays of virtuousity, but Walter really makes the music come alive on this record. It's a joy to listen to and always puts me in a good mood.

Now of course I can't guarantee that you'll dig these songs, but maybe it'll give a little insight to my favourite genre and why I love it so much. By no means am I an expert on the subject of jazz, but all I know is that I can't get enough of this music. In the future I might do some more jazz posts, so be on the lookout for that if you dig what you heard here.

greets,
Jarno