“Freedom Jazz Dance”

[Guy Berger]

I have been listening to the original version of Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance” (from The In Sound) and am struck by how much its popularity in more avant-garde circles was already baked in to the original.  Yes the beat is very “soul jazz”, but the melody is pretty angular and syncopated, not your stereotypical populist pitch.

I think of the Davis version and its offspring as just taking what’s implied in the original and taking it to its obvious conclusion.

Did anybody ever record a version that combines an avant-garde vibe with the soul jazz (or even funk/rock) rhythmic approach?

[ep1str0phy]

The Miroslav Vitous version comes to mind. There's some aggressively angular playing from John McLaughlin partway through. It's definitely in a post-Miles vein, but it threads the needle between fusion and modal/quasi-free jazz quite nicely: 

And then there's this version by the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, which is squarely free funk territory. I love the surrealist solos superimposed over the (very insistent) groove: