Spiritual jazz

[JSngry]

[Rabshakeh]

I don't think that Ornette Coleman gets classes as "spiritual jazz", but here is an interesting article from the NYT back in the day where he enthuses about the spiritual properties of Southern Christian gospel and Ashkenazi chazonis:

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/arts/music/22cole.html

 

[sgcim]

There's the album "Much in Common" by Ray Brown and Milt Jackson, where they finally lured Marion Williams into the studio to make a jazz album. Maybe they should have spoken to her about it before the session, because when she got there, she refused to sing any of that "Devil's Music", so they did one Thomas Dorsey tune, and the other four were spirituals that everyone could get by on, because they were so popular.

She later recorded an album for Atlantic, "Standin' Here, Wonderin' Which Way to Turn" that had a picture of a confused looking hippie on the cover, obviously in need of some direction, because the poor white boy was just standing there on the corner..LOL!

The record had a bunch of upcoming jazz dudes like Joe Zawinul, Keith Jarrett, etc,,, trying to give her spirituals some type of 'contemporary' 60s groove. Probably because of her refusal to sing ANY secular songs, the album didn't expose the best living female gospel singer to the mainstream audience Atlantic wanted her to reach, and that was the last time she had anything to do with anything remotely jazz related.

[sgcim]

She also appeared on the Wynton Marsalis 1994 album, In This House, On This Morning. The other album I mentioned was recorded in 1971.

Edited April 15, 2024 by sgcim

[Gheorghe]

On 4/13/2024 at 9:24 AM, Rabshakeh said:

I don't think that Ornette Coleman gets classes as "spiritual jazz", but here is an interesting article from the NYT back in the day where he enthuses about the spiritual properties of Southern Christian gospel and Ashkenazi chazonis:

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/arts/music/22cole.html

 

For me, at least if I would exactly know what´s "spiritual" , Ornette Coleman sure is. 

[Jack Pine]

I was turned on to this recently by Tyler King's substack and have been quite taken with the record. Commissioned by a Catholic church, so I think it's well qualified to be called 'spiritual'.

 

[mjazzg]

I discovered through the same source, good substack

[Teasing the Korean]

Listening now to vol. 1 of a series of at least two CDs called Spiritual Jazz, and some of this stuff is very close to old-school exotica.  

[T.D.]

54 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Listening now to vol. 1 of a series of at least two CDs called Spiritual Jazz, and some of this stuff is very close to old-school exotica.  

This one (or the LP equivalent)?

I really enjoy it. But releases in this series (in CD at least) sell out and go oop quickly, so it's the only one I have.

[Teasing the Korean]

36 minutes ago, T.D. said:

This one (or the LP equivalent)? I really enjoy it. But releases in this series (in CD at least)ell out and go oop quickly, so it's the only one I hav

Yes, that one.  I have volume 2 also.

[Teasing the Korean]

Spinning volume 2.  Possibly even more exotica content on here than on volume 1. 

[JSngry]

Please define "exotica" in this context.

[clifford_thornton]

I assume non-western instrumentation, shorter tracks, and vamps. The term "exotica" is not one of my favorites either, but like "spiritual jazz" it's probably here to stay.

[Teasing the Korean]

19 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Please define "exotica" in this context.

Capitol-E Exotica, as opposed to the generic lower-case descriptor, which I apparently used above. 

[JSngry]

I still wonder what you mean in the context of "Spiritual Jazz".

[Teasing the Korean]

6 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I still wonder what you mean in the context of "Spiritual Jazz".

It's a broad, retroactively named genre.  I'm talking about many of the selections on the first two volumes of this series.  

[JSngry]

Right. Just wondering where/what the "Exotica" is.

[Teasing the Korean]

2 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Right. Just wondering where/what the "Exotica" is.

I'm hearing, in varying ratios from tune to tune, similarities in instrumentation, modes, harmonies, arrangement devices, etc. There have a been a couple of tracks which would seamlessly fit into an Exotica DJ set or playlist.

[JSngry]

Can you name one track in particular? I'd like to check it out.

[Mark Stryker]

On 4/15/2024 at 5:47 AM, Jack Pine said:

I was turned on to this recently by Tyler King's substack and have been quite taken with the record. Commissioned by a Catholic church, so I think it's well qualified to be called 'spiritual'.

 

I knew  James well -- #JazzFromDetroit -- an earnest, super-positive spirit with a bit of the religious revivalist in his aura and an eccentric streak who would refer to himself in interviews in the third person. He would say things like:  "I said, 'Tatum,' what you need to do is write a piece called "Rise Up Detroit!" Whenever I asked how he was doing, he might say something like,  "Well, Tatum is 75 and still vibrating." 

He was a Southern transplant, who made his career as public school music teacher in Detroit but also also a jazz pianist and composer. He made things happen, most notably creating the James Tatum Foundation for the Arts in 1987, which would eventually grant some $500,000 in scholarships to roughly 500 Detroit-area students who went on to study music, dance, theater, etc. in college. The biggest annual fundraiser for the foundation was a sprawling concert he would produce at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. Often he would write a new large-scale piece for the performance. Not sure if this particular Mass was originally written for such an occasion, but but I do remember it being performed at one of the concerts I attended.  He died in 2021 at the age of 90.

Edited July 13, 2024 by Mark Stryker

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Can you name one track in particular? I'd like to check it out.

Sure.  I just got these two comps, and they were spinning while I was working.  I will need to go back to find examples of what I'm talking about.

[Teasing the Korean]

So, this track from Volume 1 would fit seamlessly into an exotica set, especially when the vibes solo kicks in at around 3.13.  And the bridge would fit well in a Donna Summer set. 😺

 

This tune features a devise that Les Baxter often used, playing a diminished chord on the root, with extended harmonies, before resolving to the major key.  

 

Another that would fit seamlessly into an Exotica set.

 

And this was has an Yma Sumac-esque soprano and a chord sequence reminiscent of Cal Tajder's "Black Orchid," which was covered by Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman.

 

[JSngry]

Ok, I hear what you're hearing in terms of the music, but I'm not sure that anybody's got Les Baxter on their mind...but if you can incorporate it into a club set, by all means do so!

[Teasing the Korean]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Ok, I hear what you're hearing in terms of the music, but I'm not sure that anybody's got Les Baxter on their mind...but if you can incorporate it into a club set, by all means do so!

Well, we don't know who listened to what - or who subliminally heard what - but I prefer to err on the side musicians' awareness.  We know that Sun Ra loved Les Baxter and Martin Denny - he is a true link between exotica and spiritual jazz.  And the Baxter/Revel/Hoffman Music Out of the Moon apparently had a sizable African American audience in Los Angeles at the time.  So who knows...

[JSngry]

Yeah, all I do know is that if you would have asked any of the more "spiritual" African,-American musicians of the 70s that I knew if they had been checking out Les Baxter...that would have been a hard no. Absolutely a hard no.

And I'm still not sure exactly how much Ra loved that stuff. I'm certain that he heard it and took some ideas from some elements from it, but that's as far as I'd go.

Now, I think he loved Fletcher Henderson. And who could blame him?