Your Favorite Spiritual Jazz LP’S?
NateBizzo
2,328 Posts
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?
What are some of your favorite Spiritual Jazz LP's?
Comments
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.
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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.
'spiritual' is shorthand for 'sounds like Pharoah Sanders 'Karma'...
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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.
Could somebody explain the difference between "melodious" and "melodic"?
Thankyou, plaese, yes. No jpeg.
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.
This is also true.
"New!!! private-press jazz without that nasty 'free' aftertaste..."
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)
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.
http://popsike.com/php/detaildata.php?itemnr=4021104765
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I heard this was garabagio, though?
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.
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.
??? 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'
Your melodiousness is becoming suspect with each post...
Crazy rare, but how dope is that James Tatum?
Yeah, well what can I say...you're probably right...my tastes are pretty ill-defined and I am widely considered a little dude poptart.
I take all mine back...this is what I meant to say(replacing 'Dance of Magic' with 'Dark of Light' or 'Love From the Sun')
See, I got little dude moves for days!
One of my absolute favorite jazz LPs. Carvin holds down a tight groove even when soloing and McLean is killing it. Dude is wearing a white denim jacket on the back. SER I OUS
Not so much for the entire record, but for the last song, a take on a traditional South African song. Got a dude named Nacimiento (no Milton) on acoustic guitar laying this real shimmery line and then Dyani (who I love) has this super thick stand up bass groove and both Dudu Pukwana (of Assagai) and John Tchicai solo over it. Hand drums, too. Insane song
Dare I forget Joe Mcphee? Nation Time, everything on CJR.
Noah Howard - Red Star on Mercury (france)
Abdul Wadud - Solo Cello LP on Bisharra
Billy Gault - When Destiny Calls on Steeplechase
Yusef Lateef - Jazz Mood on Savoy
and no... you're right I never could really get into that Oracy LP... i'd be interested in giving it a fresher listen (no longer have a copy) but I remember the poetry being pretty bad.
I love it. There's alot of beautiful Rhodes, no 'dope breaks' or anything like that tho.
The guy told me he wanted to reissue it with modern overdubbed strings & choirs, sounds like a bad move & I tried to tell him so( politely).
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Keep that Louis Hayes and Bunion on there.
I'm all about the proto-smooth jazz with breaks.
Tatum himself? That does sound like a questionable idea. It's a Detroit piece, right?