Fifteen essential black liberation jazz tracks

[ghost of miles]

Gotta admit I’m impressed by the deep-cut nature of much of this New York Times playlist:

15 essential black liberation jazz tracks

[mjazzg]

Me too. I know most of them, good to see them get highlighted. They deserve it.

Been listening to the Mtume album since reading it, great work accompaniment.

You just know there's folk saying "yes, but you've missed off..." 

Edited June 18, 2020 by mjazzg

[clifford_thornton]

ha, yeah, I probably would have been one of those people at one point, but I'm glad to see this article in the Times & also glad to see a young black music writer getting published there, writing about creative music. Alkebulan is a great album.

[felser]

9 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

 Alkebulan is a great album.

Much in need of a CD issue. one of the last remaining essential Strata-East holdouts (Jazz Contemporaries "Reasons in Tonality", Harold Vick are some others).  Interesting that such a high percentage of the cuts are from Strata-East albums.  I have every one of these cuts in one form or another, and it's a good list.  First thing I thought of when I saw the topic was that Gil Scott-Heron cut. 

Edited June 18, 2020 by felser

[Late]

Very interesting list. There are a number of cuts I don't know, so I have something to look forward to. I was puzzled by this comment: "It's easy to think a song titled 'Coltrane' would be about John, but the composition feels more like an ode to Alice." (The first two words of the lyrics to the song are: JOHN COL-TRANE.) I love Lee's vamping bass line (which also plays very well on piano), which I'm guessing most members here first heard on Night of the Mark VII?

[felser]

43 minutes ago, Late said:

Very interesting list. There are a number of cuts I don't know, so I have something to look forward to. I was puzzled by this comment: "It's easy to think a song titled 'Coltrane' would be about John, but the composition feels more like an ode to Alice." (The first two words of the lyrics to the song are: JOHN COL-TRANE.) I love Lee's vamping bass line (which also plays very well on piano), which I'm guessing most members here first heard on Night of the Mark VII?

Many (including me) first heard it on Jordan's "Glass Bead Games" 2 LP set on Strata-East, which came out a few years ahead of the Muse "Night of the Mark VII" album and the year before the Descendants of Mike and Phoebe album.  The "Glass Bead Games" version will always be THE version for me, for many reasons.  The composition also later showed up on Bill Lee's New York Bass Violin Choir album, so it got onto three Strata-East albums.