/BLINDFOLD TEST/

Welcome to the weekly Sup Forums jazz Blindfold Test thread. Every Friday and Saturday.

If you're new, the point of these threads is to have fun and encourage critical listening, discussion, and general enjoyment of jazz. All critical music listeners are welcome. The more participation we have, the more fun and successful these threads will be. In the interest of keeping the thread alive and bumped, any general jazz discussion is welcomed here as well.

For more information about how the threads work and listening suggestions, please refer to the pastebin: pastebin.com/5cjEr3A6

THIS WEEK'S THEME: Spiritual Jazz
COMPILED BY: Jazzpossu

NEXT WEEK: ???
COMPILED BY: ???

If you missed last week's thread, DON'T WORRY. It's not too late. Here are the links for the mystery tracklist. Download the tracks, record your thoughts/guesses/evaluations for each one, and then come back and post them in the thread. Remember, people will be posting guesses and thoughts in this thread so don't read the thread until you have listened to the music and collected your thoughts in order to avoid spoilers. Track info for this week's tracks will be posted on Saturday, so if you see the thread is close to dying before then, give it a bump.

www76.zippyshare.com/v/0mP3YRNq/file.html

Posting with names or tripcodes is encouraged as it makes discussion much easier.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=AoL_LUdKTxo
youtube.com/watch?v=y0eliUpwA1M
youtu.be/gNqLS03mH5U
www112.zippyshare.com/v/mqCTcRyi/file.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

do people actually pass this test

It's not a pass/fail kind of test. It's just for fun to write down your thoughts about the music with no previous info about it and to see if you can guess who any of the players are.

In the /blindfold/ test everyone is a Winner!

Greetings from rainy Pori Jazz Festival - I won't be able to participate much, but I'll try to chime in when I can.

Who are you seeing today?

so far mostly local Finnish groups today - Aki Rissanen Trio was excellent, Ricky-Tick Big Band & Julkinen Sana - a combination project of 3 rap MCs and a big band, psych/prog/electronic pop/free jazz/you-name-it influenced trio Tenors of Kalma, singer Nina Mya

Snarky Puppy is playing right now, then Finnish guitarist Teemu Viinikainen and his new trio, after that Gregory Porter and then there would still be Ms. Lauryn Hill, but I don't think I'll be staying for that

oh and Matthew Halsall & the Gondwana Orchestra too that I really enjoyed

1. This one reminds me a lot of Coltrane but I’m not sure if it is. The saxophonist sounds like he doesn’t have the same fire that Coltrane did. The pianist does sound like McCoy Tyner though. This sounds like it might be a blues form but with some of the chords altered or something. I liked this one though, I think the piano player was Tyner. 3.5 stars.

2. This one is also pretty cool and sounds like a more modern take on Coltrane’s style. It’s cool how they start with a melody but then both of the solos are really free. The piano solo was exciting and he reminded me of Cecil Taylor at some parts. The sax player also had an interesting tone that I liked. 3.5 stars.

3. I liked how this one started and then it only got better. Once again there is some strong Coltrane influence going on here and this pianist sounds a lot like Tyner. I’m guessing I’ll be saying that a lot this week. I like the way this keeps developing more and more as it goes on and getting grander in scale. The vocals add a nice effect and give it more of that grand scale. I have no idea who this is but I would listen to more of this. 4 stars.

4. This sounds kind of similar to the previous one with the vocals happening behind everything but the melody sounds much more modern and post-boppish. The solos remind me of the first track from last week’s playlist where they were playing super fast over ESP. This one would have been more enjoyable without the bass solo, but I liked the rest of it. 3.5 stars.

5. So no sax on this one, just trumpet. I could definitely see Freddie Hubbard or Woody Shaw doing some stuff like this in the 70’s. This sounds like what I imagine Coltrane would have done if he had played trumpet instead of sax, so I guess it’s a good one for the spiritual jazz theme. I liked it but it got kind of long. 3 stars.

6. This one was cool. I like the unique sounding instruments and I’m getting more of an African vibe from this than I have from any of the others. I like the inclusion of percussion. The piano solo went on for too long though. I thought it was over and then it kept going but overall it’s a nice track. 3 stars.

7. My favorite so far. It’s definitely still Coltrane influenced but it also sounds more modern than anything I’ve ever heard Coltrane do. There is so much energy on the whole track but especially on the piano solo. Normally I’d probably say that the piano solo goes on too long but he never runs out of ideas and the rhythm section never lets up. 4.5 stars.

8. Even stronger Coltrane influences here. But then more with a Latin feel as the song goes on. The piano solo was pretty good but not great but then I liked the sax solo a lot. You can tell this sax player is really going for the Coltrane sound. It’s pretty good but not that original. I guess it’s cool to put a Latin twist on it. 3.5 stars.

9. This was good but pretty similar to track 7. The piano player is a lot different though. He doesn’t have the same energy but he probably has more traditional piano chops. I also liked the sax player better on track 7 so this one was good but comparing it to that track I don’t like it as much as I normally would probably 3.5 stars.

10. This one really sounds like Coltrane. Maybe this is actually him. Probably just somebody’s tribute. It reminds me of My Favorite Things and some of his later stuff blended together. Then they start singing John Coltrane so I’m thinking it’s definitely someone’s tribute. It’s pretty good. The vocals are kind of haunting and the playing is nice. Track 7 was my favorite but this one will stick with me. 4 stars.

Certainly most of spiritual jazz is aptly characterized by sax players sounding like Coltrane and pianists sounding like McCoy Tyner, but that's the territory pretty much so I just embraced it. :)

Many good observations here - I'm also quite fond of the piano solo of track 2.

How is Snarky Puppy? I just realized it's been two years since I saw them live.

I've noticed from seeing snarky puppy that having certain key members there makes a world of difference. Snarky with Cory Henry is a way better trip then without.

Not terrible. I saw them previously in 2014 and I think they are sounding better now than I remembered them sounding then.

It's pretty nice for what it is, they got people dancing a little even though it's raining. I just wish there was more personality to the playing and solos.

Yeah, that Berklee funk genre leads to some solos with a whole lot of notes that don't say anything important or sensitive. By jazz fags for jazz fags

Yeah, that would be around the time that I saw them. By far my least favorite part of the show was the 10 minute keytar solo near the end when the rest of the band looked completely uninterested.

My thoughts for this week's tracks incoming.

>Track 1
Coltrane’s quartet. Really I think this isn’t one of his stronger tunes. He’s doing the modal thing but he sounds very restrained here. And not in a good way. You know he’s capable of breaking out of the natural pattern of the tune but he never really does. At least not in the way I’d like to hear him do. How about Elvin’s drumming though. It’s pretty good all the way through. I like the way Tyner pushes a little more outside during his solo. Did he quote “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be”? He keeps hinting at that phrase. Is this Garrison? The bass solo a lot of nothing. He really phoned that one in. I don’t know the name of this tune. I guess maybe it’s from Crescent or Coltrane Plays the Blues. This is definitely not his best.

>Track 2
The saxophonist has a strange vibrato in his tone. I don’t really care too much for this type of sax playing. This track is a good example of why- it just sounds like he’s not really listening to what the rhythm section is doing. They’re doing an ok job of listening and reacting to what he’s doing but I think it would make for much stronger music if it were more of a give-and-take scenario. The piano solo was better but still not great. Another complaint about this track: They set up a pretty cool theme that they came back to in between the solos and then at the end, but in both the sax and piano solo they jumped so quickly into very abstract territory and never really referenced that theme again until their solo was over. I don’t really think it’s a very strong track overall.

>Track 3
Anybody else reminded of Footprints by this vamp? This sounds quite a bit like McCoy on piano again. That sax solo was pretty nice and I like the way the rhythm section supported him while still keeping that original vamp as the undercurrent of everything. I wish the mixing were better though. The way the choir swells in is pretty interesting. And it works pretty well then when they get to the main theme where they’re saying the lyrics. I like that the harmony keeps changing behind the same melody. I liked the effect of the solo vocalist with the saxophonist, I wish that would have gone on longer. The track came to a nice ending too. The solos were decent here but I really like this one in terms of composition. Even though it was a very long track, it never became stagnant but still all felt like a complete piece at the end. It’s based around simple melodic fragments but they keep coming back in new ways. Also the track flowed so naturally you almost don’t even notice that it’s in 5. This sounds like what Kamasi could be if he actually put some thought into his content.

>Track 4
And speaking of Kamasi, I think this is from The Epic. I guess it was kind of a cool effect superimposing that melody over the choral thing going on but at the same time I think it kind of takes away from the melody itself. I remember not liking the trumpet player’s playing much at all on this but he actually sounds pretty great here. I don’t quite get what the pianist is doing though. At times it sounds like he’s comping in a different key… maybe going for a polytonal effect kind of like in the head. Sometimes it works and sometimes I don’t think it does. Kamasi’s solo is pretty good too. I like the start of it a lot. But then I think he starts to repeat himself and the solo kind of loses steam. He keeps coming back to that same lick which usually I would like but he mostly just keeps playing it in the same way and doesn’t do anything different with it. Except for the one time when he plays the lick a few times in a row transposing it to different keys. That bit was nice. I don’t remember the name of this track but I think it’s probably one of the strongest on The Epic. The trumpet and sax solos were both good and there was a good amount of interaction from the rhythm section. This track makes me think of the Brecker Brothers oddly enough.

>Track 5
I probably could have done without the intro but once the tune gets started it’s pretty cool. It’s kind of unusual to hear just a trumpet in the lead in a group like this. Could be Charles Tolliver maybe? At times the trumpet player reminds me a little bit of Woody Shaw too. I think it could have benefited from a little more contour during the trumpet solo- they pretty much stayed stayed super high energy for the whole solo- but the piano player was doing some nice stuff. I don’t think this one would have been as good with a different pianist.

>Track 6
Sun Ra? No, probably not. I think the sound quality and combination of odd instrument timbres made me think of him. I don’t really have strong feelings about this one way or the other. Nothing about it was really interesting enough to hold my attention for long. Some of the rhythms they got into were cool but it was a long track and there weren’t really very many such moments.

>Track 7
I’m liking the drummer. This actually reminds me quite a bit of Dave Liebman’s group Quest who I included on last week’s Shorter playlist. Sounds a bit more like like Kenny Barron or somebody a bit more Tyner influenced on piano though. This definitely has that quintessential 70’s sound. There are some good moments in the piano solo too but there are also some messy bits that get pretty tiring to listen to. There’s just so little space in his playing. The soprano solo was my favorite part.

>Track 8
This sounds like somebody doing a decent Coltrane imitation. Well that intro was pretty long. It’s almost 5 minutes in when the actual tune starts. Well once the tune came in I was thinking this might be something from Conrad Herwig’s “The Latin Side of John Coltrane” but lack of trombone kind of puts that theory out. The pianist is great and I’m loving the Latin groove going on. Actually there are a few sloppy moments in the piano solo, but it’s kind of endearing. His playing reminds me a lot of how I’d solo over something like this. When the sax solo starts I noticed something interesting which is that for a long time he sticks only to one mode, it sounds like Dorian, and he doesn’t play a single note outside of those seven. There was no tension to it. Eventually he starts throwing in some more chromatics but slowly and mostly he still sticks to those original notes. I’d say this is a second-rate Coltrane impersonator, Pharaoh Sanders maybe? He nails some aspects of Coltrane’s playing, like tone and phrasing, but ignores others like chromaticism and melodic contour.

>Track 9
Wow notice how much better the rhythm section sounds once they settle into the piano solo. I think they were purposely playing “loose” on the head but their time feel was all over the place. The pianist is great and sounds like Richie Beirach or Kenny Kirkland or one of those other 80’s guys like that. This saxophonist’s playing reminds me a lot of Kamasi, maybe this is Pharaoh? You can hear him coming back to the same licks and pentatonic scale. And then the solo plateaus with the obligatory overblowing crescendo. I liked the piano solo here and the rhythm section sounded good at times, I just wish the saxophonist had something more interesting to say.

>Track 10
More Coltrane imitation but I like this quite a bit. The melody is well-written and the pianist is playing some nice dark voicings behind it. The drummer’s snare work is nice too. There’s some good interplay going on here and I like the subtlety of the sax playing. Oh I just realized what this was once the vocals came in. It’s the John Coltrane track from Glass Bead Games. This one was good, it’s nice to see a more subtle, understated take on Coltrane.

Final thoughts- This week leaves me wondering about something: What are the musical characteristics that define “spiritual jazz”? So without taking song titles, album titles, or album artwork into account, what makes spiritual jazz distinct from modal jazz? Thoughts?

The writer is definitely primarily a composer.

>Coltrane’s quartet.
So this one is actually Coltrane?

>And speaking of Kamasi, I think this is from The Epic
Oh I'm surprised I didn't realize this. I was expecting him to be on here.

>reminds me a little bit of Woody Shaw too
I was hearing that too

>There’s just so little space in his playing. The soprano solo was my favorite part.
I really liked that piano solo.

>So this one is actually Coltrane?
I could be wrong but I thought so.

It had its moments but it was just too much.

Muhal Richard Abrams maybe?

Also I put together some more playlists this week so now the ones I have ready to go are:

Big Band
SteepleChase
Live at the Vanguard
Joe Henderson Tunes
Piano Trios play Ellington
Jazz Versions of Classical Pieces

The one I'd like to do next is SteepleChase so I'll offer that for next week if nobody else has anything ready.

That sounds good. We'll see if anybody else wants to do one for next week but if not we'll do the steeplechase one.

4: Right on. Wanted to have Kamasi here because I feel like spiritual jazz is a good context to think of much of his music.

5. Tolliver and Shaw are both good guesses - the trumpeter is "if you don't know this recording, you almost certainly won't recognize his name" level obscure, but his sidemen are fairly prominent in this kind of music and did work with Tolliver and Shaw around the same time

8: sax player is certainly a musician best described as someone trying to sound like Coltrane

9: it is actually Pharoah here and it is from the 80's. Felt like including something that actually swings at times because /jazz/ and all.

10: indeed from Clifford Jordan's Glass Bead Games. One of the gems in the Strata-East catalog that's one of the important labels for this kind of music.

I have some thoughts about the nature spiritual jazz that I'll hope to get into at latest in the reveal...

1: is indeed Coltrane - one of his earlier strongly modal tunes. First I had no 'Trane, but felt wrong not to have the roots in there since his legacy is so strong in spiritual jazz.

Picked this track because it's so repetitive and harmonically simple, both qualities that are very common in spiritual jazz.

Also it feels symbolic to me for the early 60's how Coltrane solos on the two chord vamp, but McCoy goes for a more traditional bluesy approach.

Abrams is not a bad guess for the composer - it's a non-American. Probably difficult to guess, I reckon.

>I feel like spiritual jazz is a good context to think of much of his music.
Especially with the previous track to compare it to.

>but his sidemen are fairly prominent in this kind of music and did work with Tolliver and Shaw around the same time
Maybe I'll give this one another listen tonight and make some guesses as to the sidemen. My other thoughts for the trumpet player was maybe Johnny Coles or Eddie Henderson but neither are that obscure.

>it is actually Pharoah here and it is from the 80's. Felt like including something that actually swings at times because /jazz/ and all.
More straight ahead than most of his stuff I've heard. I take it none of my guesses for the pianist were right. Maybe I'll make a few more guesses on this one tonight too.

>10: indeed from Clifford Jordan's Glass Bead Games.
Yeah an awesome album. I just listened to it within the past few months so it was sounding very familiar but then once the vocals came in I realized what it was.

>First I had no 'Trane, but felt wrong not to have the roots in there since his legacy is so strong in spiritual jazz.
Yeah, especially since a large portion of the genre seems to be people imitating him.

Spiritual jazz is the worst kind t b h

>1: is indeed Coltrane
That's the only Coltrane track this week?

>Spiritual jazz is the worst kind t b h
Instead of making statements like this why not join in and you can tell us exactly what you like about each track? It's literally the point of the thread.

bump. What are you guys listening to this week?

I've been listening to Herbie Hancock's earlier albums. Empyrean Isles and From my Point of View

bump

Just getting into jazz and looking for recs.

My favorites so far are
Mingus- Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Eric Dolphy- Out to Lunch
Kenny Dorham- Una Mas
Miles Davis- Miles in the Sky
John Coltrane- Africa/Brass

What else will I love?

Try Dialogue by Bobby Hutcherson.

yeah, not Beirach or Kirkland on piano on #9 - he's a little older than Beirach with some recording credits in the 60's already.

it's a certainly not a style that appeals to all jazz fans because it leaves out a lot of the sophistication and the tracks are often quite long repetitive jams

While "spiritual jazz" is accurate for what early figures in the style like John and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders were doing, by the early 70's it becomes more the music of pan-africanism. It's pretty often presented as the music of the black community and black people with strong African roots - like Eddie Gale put it in the title of his Blue Note album, it's "Ghetto Music".

Much of what is commonly classified as spiritual jazz was released on artist controlled small independent labels and often performed in venues that weren't traditional jazz clubs. There's this sense of musicians wanting to take control of all aspects and casting aside white man's culture and I think this is also one of the motivations while the music is often harmonically simple and tries to go for a more tribal feel. There's also often all kinds of percussion like bells and chimes giving the impression that it's music that the community can participate in.

bump

>tfw I can't get into diz
what am I doing wrong... I love bebop but I definitely prefer Fats or Miles to Diz... He's too abrasive to me I guess. Should probably give him more listens

bump

What have you listened to?

Groovin' High, Quintet at Massey Hall, the album with Sunny Side Up, live at newport 57/58 with his big band, and Afro.

It's not like I don't like him I just prefer others but I know that i'm missing something because all those musicians I love are praising him so much.

Have you ever watched videos of him playing? I think it adds something to see just how much effort he puts into his playing.

I think only where he was older. When he played with monk in the 70's.

bump

>He's too abrasive to me I guess
Do you like any other players who have a more abrasive sound?

>Track 1
So this is Coltrane and Elvin and McCoy. Not sure about the bass player, could be Jimmy, could be Steve Davis. I'm certain I've heard this recording before but I don't remember the name of this tune. I like Elvin's drumming on this, but for this group I didn't think there was anything particularly notable about this track. 3.5 stars
>Track 2
I like the beat. Some of the piano's comping is interesting. The sax is doing some interesting things tonally with the overblowing and such, but the backing seems very bland in comparison for the most part. The drummer gets into some more interesting stuff during the piano solo. And the piano seems to have a bit of Cecil Taylor influence with the tonal clusters. Might this be some early Taylor? I've never heard a recording of him with a bass, so this could also be someone influenced by him. Piano solo was the highlight by a large margin. The rest of the track sorta meandered. 3.5 stars

Still listening. This track list is long, so I might have to take another sitting to finish it before the reveal.

>could be Steve Davis
That could be it. I thought that bass solo was really lame.

>Track 2
>Piano solo was the highlight by a large margin. The rest of the track sorta meandered.
Agreed.

>This track list is long, so I might have to take another sitting to finish it before the reveal.
Agree with this too. Took me 3 different sessions to get through all the tracks.

>Track 3
I like the piano part, has that good spiritual jazz effect of sort of putting you in a trance. Ooh vocals. A whole choir it seems. I've never heard a jazz recording with a choir accompaniment but this is pretty cool. That high leading voice sounds fantastic. I like the addition of the flute. I like the arco bass as well. This is a really cool track so far. So is this just one person switching wind instrument several times, or different players coming in? I assume if it was different players they'd play together some. If it is one, he's getting a whole load of solo time. I was a little worried by the runtime at the beginning given that repeating piano part, but this track has really justified it. I've been engaged the whole way through. There's so much to listen to, and the choral voicings really immerse you in the feeling of the song. Loved it. 4.5 stars

>Track 4
More choral stuff? I didn't know there was this much out there. In a lot of ways this reminds of a bunch of really tight big bands I don't like all that much. I like a bit more looseness to the playing, so that sort of head doesn't do much for me. The drummer is doing some decent stuff, and so is the piano, though this trumpet solo isn't that interesting. It sort of sounds like he jumped out the gate with all he had, so after that it feels directionless. The use of the Rhodes keyboard is nice. It's tasteful in the context of the track, sort of nicely slots in in the texture. I'm liking this sax solo a lot more. He's doing some interesting rhythmic stuff here and shaping a lot more in terms of pace and leading towards the higher pitches. They just drop the choral thing completely during the solos? What was the point in having that in the first place? Whoa, that bass player is fast. The way this is mixed, with the drummer still on the ride but way down in volume, is really nice. Allows the focus to really be on the bass solo. Now the choir's back for the head, I guess. Seems sort of strange, since now they seem extraneous. I would believe this was Kamasi I guess, but if it is I'm much more impressed by the soloing of the group than in anything else I've heard. Whoever this is, on the basis of this track I'd listen to more. 3.5 stars

>Track 5
Nice to hear no sax. I like the percussion. I'd believe this was Don Cherry or someone else into that world music type stuff. I guess this probably isn't Cherry since that tone is a bit stronger than his. I find the percussion and the drumming on this enjoyable; makes it feel like chase music. I like its style, but I don't think it justified its length. 3 stars
>Track 6
Interesting selection of woodwinds here. I think they might be repeating that theme a few too many times. I feel a bit like I'm listening to the MASH theme or something. I like the use of a violin. I think I also hear tabla, which is pretty cool. This track would definitely be getting boring if that beat wasn't so good. I find myself sort of wishing the percussion was actually louder, cuz I could just nod my head to this beat for ages. I definitely feel as if it could've been shorter though. Sorta thing that just grooves along. 2.5 stars

>And the piano seems to have a bit of Cecil Taylor influence with the tonal clusters. Might this be some early Taylor?
I heard some Cecil Taylor influence in this too but it the recordings sounds too good to be early Cecil Taylor

recs for good jazz albums by bassists besides Mingus and Paul Chamber?

Try Dave Holland

bump

yeah, spiritual jazz tracks tend to be very long

the track certainly represents a time period much later than early Cecil in this list

Seconding Dave Holland. Also Ray Brown, Oscar Pettiford, NHOP, Johnny Dyani, and Scott Colley.

>but his sidemen are fairly prominent in this kind of music and did work with Tolliver and Shaw around the same time
Stanley Cowell or Onaje Allan Gumbs on piano maybe? I know Cowell played with both Tolliver and Shaw, I don't know if Onaje ever recorded with Tolliver though... I haven't heard all that much of his 70's and 80's stuff.

>It sort of sounds like he jumped out the gate with all he had, so after that it feels directionless.
This is a good way to put it and I feel that way about a lot of Kamasi's solos throughout that album. It's definitely happened to me where I've run out of ideas before my solo is over and I think that's what's going on in that album sometimes.

good guesses, but not one of them. Cowell plays on two tracks this week though.

Here's some contemporary mellow spiritual jazz I heard live yesterday from Manchester, UK - reveal will probably be a few hours later than usual on Saturday due to my festival adventures

youtube.com/watch?v=AoL_LUdKTxo

He's on Glass Bead Games I think and maybe also track 9 could be him. It can be pretty hard to tell all those 70's and 80's Tyner-influenced pianists apart. Mulgrew Miller, Stanley Cowell, Kenny Barron, George Cables, Onaje Gumbs... The list just goes on and on and in similar settings they can all sound pretty similar.

Here I go

1. I suppose this could be Coltrane in the early 60s. Has his sound, but a bit more subdued than I'm used to. Probably McCoy on piano then. I liked the piano solo most, it's what I found most creative. The track has a nice atmosphere but I still find it somewhat underwhelming. If this is really Coltrane I have to say I prefer him when he gets a bit wilder.
2. This does have kind of a groovy melody, mostly kept by the backing section. I like it, I think they do a nice job supporting the saxophone. Now the piano takes the lead, kinda reminds me of Cecil Taylor, very agressive and dissonant. I do really like him though. They go back to the initial melody at the end, which is a nice way of wrapping it up.
3. Starts of very well, but also gets incredibly better with the incorporation of the choir. I think vocals (or just voice) can work greatly with spiritual jazz, it's something I'd like to hear more of. That female vocalist has a phenomenous voice, it's very nice to hear the high pitched tone with the sax.
4. Thought it was gonna be more jazz with a choir, but it starts sounding like hard bop. They're playing fast, I prefer the trumpet on here, probably solely because of how it sounds. I don't really like the bass part either. It was nice to listen some the chours again at the end.
5. First three minutes are kinda slow but then it rapidly changes to something with more rhythm and. I think it improves as it goes on, it also gets more intense. I'd like this more had it been shorter and more focused, but I still liked it.

6. Has a different sound than others but doesn't really stick out save the part about 4 minutes in. It's not bad I guess, I'm just not fond of this style. I find some aspects of this similar to Michael White's approach to spiritual jazz though it's very different in style.
7. This had a very interesting piano solo. Though at times it feels too chaotic and I find it hard to follow.
8. Saxophonist does give Coltrane vibes and the band more or less go in the same direction. When he stops though, the rest of the band start playing with a more latin sound. And now the saxophone is back with that on the background. That was unexpected.
9. That's a neat intro. Sounds like Pharoah, I very much like his tone. There's a fair amount of energy in the pianist's playing as well, his solo was great. I wonder who he is because he doesn't sound too much like Lonnie.
10. Cool, this is John Coltrane from Glass Bead Games. Great record. The track captures his sound nicely and the vocals are a very good touch.

This was a long playlist (but that's what I usually expect from spiritual jazz, long tracks, and usually decent amounts of repetition and energy) and also pretty good. Plenty of neat choices, track 3 for example.

I might try and put together one soon but not for next week. Steeple Chase sounds nice, I gotta dig more into it.
>9: it is actually Pharoah here and it is from the 80's
Interesting. All the one I've heard is earlier than mid 70s so I'll be checking this one out.
>What are you guys listening to this week?
I got around this. It was lovely. Thinking of going around other complete recordings, probably Coltrane's 1961 Village Vanguard.

Bump

I have to sleep, so i will post just a few songs i´ve listened, i will post the rest later.

1. This music has a very familiar texture, this is something i wouldn´t find strange at all to hear at some very pretentious art exhibition or lounge bar, i can hear the hipster from miles away. The music would´ve benefited from more variety, more experimentation, i hear some very old clichés of smooth jazz. But its not bad, it has some excellent drums, although it´s volume could´ve been turned a bit down so it wouldn´t drown the other instruments. This feels like some heavy improv session, it has structure, of course, but as i have said previously, it lacks "flavour", its like a chewy gum: its tasty, but it loses flavour fast. 6/10

2. This song is like a expensive prostitute: exuberant, elegant, educated and above all, she can fuck well; this describe what i feel listening to this song, it is both sophisticated and sensual, but never kitsch or vulgar. Metaphors aside, this is a very well played music, the bass gives a brilliant background to the song and steals the attention both in the "calmer" parts of the song and in the "climatic" parts, the music´s motif is catchy and simple to listen. An overall great experience, nevertheless i can´t give a full score because of the more "chaotic" parts, it feels too random and too dense to my tastes. 9/10 (i want more from wherever this came from)

10 (yes, i´ve began listening out of order because of xmplay fuckery) - This first song feels like it belongs to some kind of ritual to a jazz god, think the Oracle of Delphi without hallucinogen smokes (ok, maybe), and with some dirty old men dancing instead of some hot chick. This feels like something from Mingus or maybe a very tame Sun Ra. 8/10


Anyway, great selection of songs.

Spiritual jazz is such a fucking meme

Tomasz Stanko performs in my neck of the woods in August. He's going to play with Juhani Aaltonen and the Alexi Tuomarila Trio. Pretty excited for that.

Bump

Hello there Oulu-area person! I'd love to hear that - Aaltonen is still sounding pretty good for being 80.

bump

bump

spiritual bump

youtube.com/watch?v=y0eliUpwA1M

Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music is a bit of an odd album in the Blue Note catalogue - apparently label co-founder Francis Wolff liked the material so much that he personally financed the production and release

woo
youtu.be/gNqLS03mH5U

Alright well unless anybody else has a playlist ready to go, next week we'll do Steeplechase theme by JTG.

I love Cannonball if that counts. I guess my problem is with trumpets playing in the high register and I think Dizzy does it a lot.

>1
Pretty average. Nothing really good or bad here. Wouldn’t listen to again.

>2
Better. I like the emotion in the saxophone and the wildness of the piano solo.

>3
Fantastic. I was expecting this to be just average from the beginning but then it kept surprising me with unexpected changes. I’ve never heard any other music that sounds like this. I love it.

>4
Sounds like someone trying to copy the style of track 3. The parts with the chorus in the background were ok but the rest sounded pretty forgettable.

>5
Nothing too interesting about this one. I don’t really get why this one is spiritual jazz.

>6
This has a tribal sound that I can see being labeled as spiritual jazz. It gets boring once they settle in to the music though and nothing really changes the whole way through.

>7
This was better than most things in this style. The piano solo was pretty good. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a piano solo that’s this aggressive sounding without also sounding totally free and chaotic.

>8
It felt like this had no real feeling or soul behind it at all.

>9
Didn’t do anything for me. The sax player gets some interesting sounds at times but nothing I haven’t heard before.

>10
Pretty forgettable overall but I did like the singing because it was unexpected.

bump

and link for next week

www112.zippyshare.com/v/mqCTcRyi/file.html

Bump.
I was out at a concert yesterday but I'll post later today when I get the tracklist finished.
Not looking at thread cause reveal info.

Glad to have you join this week!

No hurry yet, I'm still at the jazz festival with limited posting capabilities - just saw Steve Coleman & Five Elements, I got the feeling it was kind of like ritual funk music. Challenging, but in a pretty good way.

I'll have a chance to do the reveals in about 3 hours from now, so keep the thread alive until then.

Kk, I think I may just post them as I listen to them after I get up to where I am.

>track one
This is a bit like Olé era Coltrane. Vamp driven music. The sort of stuff Christian Vander prays to. This sort of arrangement gives a lot of freedom to the soloists but I think it’s pretty challenging to make music like this, that doesn’t move, consistently interesting. The sax player is good but I think the drummer being so adventurous was really what kept things afloat and interesting.
The piano player’s solo was ok and the bass player changed up the ostinato for it and even actually improvised freely a little which was nice.
The bass player’s solo was WAAAAY too safe though. He stuck pretty close to his prewritten line and that bit at the end of his solo just felt like he was about to try find his voice when he was cut off by the head.

>track two
You know, I never really understood what “spiritual jazz” was but I know it was supposed to have evolved out of Coltrane’s late music.. I’m thinking maybe we could just call this thing a sub-genre of modal jazz? I mean, there were some obvious blues patterns in that first track but the sax and piano solos, they were essentially just doing as they pleased harmonically and it’s the same sort of deal here. They go free a few times as an ensemble but when the bass and piano are playing “on piste”, they’re playing fairly harmonically static stuff and the sax player just works around that in any way he pleases like a modal player. I might be wrong in saying this but is this whole movement just an expansion of Coltrane’s late modal and early free stuff?
I think Coltrane had a lot more going on in his music than these guys. The free piano solo was just…it didn’t go anywhere. It was like they just told him to bang away and listen for when the bass player got tired and interjected with the main theme.

>Track 7
I like the drumwork on this one. I actually like everyone on this one. They manage to make the band sounds huge even though it's only a quartet. I'm not really sure who any of these players are. The soprano player's use of note-bending is pretty unique. The production on the piano makes it sound a bit thin, but the person playing is doing some cool stuff. I also like how the bass is really active. They all do a very good job of playing around the beat rather than being right on it. Not a huge fan of how it fades out though. Still, very strong playing. 4 stars
>Track 8
This track has taken a really interesting route in terms of pacing. Now it goes into this latin groove? It feels sort of directionless overall. The drummer is also just doing his own thing and not reacting to the piano player's solo in any way I can parse out. This is also beginning to feel a bit long. I'm all for lengthy tracks, but this one seems to lack development or shape as a whole. Okay, they did finally come back to the thing at the beginning, and with a pretty smooth transition as well. 2.5 stars

>Track 1
Unmistakably Trane, from one of the Impulse! albums with the classic quartet. I don't know what it's possible to say about this one. It's quite laid back and restrained from everyone, but we all know what they're capable of. 4 stars.

>Track 2
Started promising, and the way the sax player built up the intensity is cool, but I don't think the others quite matched him, so at times the accompaniment sounded a bit rigid. I'm not sure how I feel about the piano solo, there were times where it clicked with me, and times where it just sounded like a mess. I'd be curious to hear more of this group, but this track was hit and miss. 2 and a half stars.

>Track 3
Started off as pure Coltrane worship, and if you took out the choral stuff that's all the first four minutes would be. Started to win me over with the bowed bass/sax solo. It's definitely a really poweful arrangement, but the improvisation doesn't excite me much. Maybe if it wasn't in a playlist with track 1 I wouldn't be so inclined to compare it unfavourably. At the moment it's 3 stars but I think if I gave it a fair chance it'd be higher.

>Track 4
Sounds similarly huge as the last track. Crazy drums though. Once that all stops it sounds like there's some heavy late-60's Miles influences going on. In fact other than the opening arrangement I don't think there's much "spiritual jazz" about this track. It's pretty great though. The climax at the end of the sax solo followed by the subdued overall sound during the bass solo was really nice, though the switch to arco was a bit abrupt. Doesn't stop the bass solo being the best bit though. This is my favourite so far. 4 stars.

And I only managed to listen to those four tracks this week. I'll post later if I get chance to hear any more.

>Track 9
I like the screaming sax, though it makes this feel a bit more pop-esque for me. This track as a whole sorta feels that way. Maybe it's just cause that drum beat sounds as if it's in 2/4 for the most part. I do feel like this is the kind of song that'd be playing when the main character in a movie has just started exploring New York. I like the piano's use of polyrhythms. Now it just feels as if it's repeating. Only piano and sax ever get to solo? And how many times are they gonna restate that theme? There's nothing really bad about this track, but there's also nothing really interesting that pops out at me. 2.5 stars
>Track 10
I like how it starts off with just bass. Always a good appraoch. Was that a harp? Or a harpsichord? It hasn't come back so I guess it was just a strange sound made from the piano. And now they're singing about Coltrane. I really like the bass playing, and how this track is chill in comparison to the rest of the tracks. 3.5 stars

>track three
The drummer is good. His comping is involved, the piano player and him are setting the pace and as he’s upping the intensity of his playing , the piano player gets more dissonant and gets loud with him. The sax should have picked up on what they were doing! That was a good chance to join in on a crescendo but he was way too low in his register to match them. Maybe he had to watch the clock for the choir? It just feels like a missed opportunity but things cook up plenty with the vocals. This is the sound Kamasi was going for but this isn't as syrupy and sterile as The Epic often is.
This arrangement is pretty complex and they've got a good gospel choir. Appropriate for the “spiritual vibe”. Wow, that soprano. Her voice is so piercing. I was mostly listening to the sax player before she came in and he had the sense to play off her with some spectacular results.
The bowed bass solo was a good idea. It took the air out of the crescendo smoothly and gave a bit of breathing space to the composition. Between the tremolo and how high in its register it was, it sounded like a different instrument and was a nice colour change for the piece. His playing sounded eastern or African or something. As did a lot of the track but it was really strong here.
The way the sax and flute pick up the bass melody and lead it into the sax solo is way too perfectly. Obviously the choir was recorded separately but maybe the sax is also recording with them playing flute?
The track should have ended after the sax solo. They don’t drag it out too much further after that and I guess they wanted to recapitulate stuff but the fade out at 7:45 ish would have been perfect as an ending. I was more into the sax player's soloing this time around and it was a plenty high enough note to go out on.
They don't introduce anything new and they sacrificed a better ending for the sake of showing off all the cool themes again. It’s good music but I can just replay the piece.

>Live at the Vanguard
That sounds great. I'll be looking forward to this one.

>track four
Miss Understanding, the best track on The Epic. The head is some of the best musicianship on the album, really well executed. There’s a lot of reaching for ideals on this album. It’s ambitious, often at its own expense, but this intro is really good. The drumming is particularly inspired. There’s so little the choir, strings and horns need to contribute, he’s like a fucking hurricane.
Kamasi has the better folks from his band soloing afterwards and while the improv isn’t as impressive as the pre-composed stuff, it’s as good as it ever gets on the album. The trumpet solo is melodic, the drummer contributes the most interplay between ensemble and soloist that appears on The Epic and Kamasi is adventurous, though he is more hit and miss. As usual he’s got a good sense of how to use timbre in the development of his solos and while some of his melodic ideas aren’t great, the fact that the drummer is following the emotional arc of his solos and picking up on rhythmic ideas makes it pretty entertaining.
Thankfully we also don’t have “Thundercat” on this one. Man, if he did, this would be the best solo of his career as far as I’m concerned. The bass didn’t catch my ear in the accompaniment but his solo is my favourite on the track (and maybe the album). I like this type of bass playing. There’s bits of LaFaro influence all over his pizzicato playing and he’s able to use that dense playing in a way that is melodic, jazzy, bluesy and lyrical. His bowed playing is enjoyable too and I think reintroducing the keys for it was a good idea. The timbre change in the bass suited the electronic keyboard and the track felt a lot more fusion, in a good way. It was a nice direction change for the solo and executed pretty seamlessly.
Then they go back into that really sharp head. They sound well practiced, it's damn tight.

>track five
Very floaty. Lots of drums. I liked it at first but they let this more rhythmically free section run on way too long. I didn’t find the crescendo particularly affecting and I was just waiting for them to go into a more rhythmically stable section for most of the second half of the intro. I suppose with the amount of drums they had going in the head I should have expected how funky and African this would wind up sounding.
The percussion is a pretty big draw for me and took up a lot of my attention but the trumpet solo was pretty nice. More Freddie Hubbard style post-bop than spiritual but I’m not complaining, I like that stuff more than some of say the modal/free stuff from the first two tracks.
I was never bored listening to the track even though the trumpet player was pretty ambitious with the amount of time he took. There's a hell of a lot going on here rhythmically and it's enough to keep my head spinning.

This, or jazz versions of classical piece.

Gonna take a break. I might be back later but I'm going to play Dnd with a few friends so I probs won't be back till late so don't wait around for me Blindfold guy.
Might be in the thread though. I haven't read any of this weeks reviews yet.

>The bass player’s solo was WAAAAY too safe though. He stuck pretty close to his prewritten line and that bit at the end of his solo just felt like he was about to try find his voice when he was cut off by the head.
Yeah, I noticed that too. What a letdown of a bass solo.

>I’m thinking maybe we could just call this thing a sub-genre of modal jazz?
This was kind of what I was saying yesterday... I don't know that there are a lot of "musical" characteristics that are unique to spiritual jazz. The musical elements seem pretty similar to modal jazz with just song titles, lyrics, and themes that relate to spirituality. I think Jazzpossu made a point though that spiritual jazz can often include African percussion and African influence in general.

>This is the sound Kamasi was going for but this isn't as syrupy and sterile as The Epic often is.
I said something similar to this.

>I liked it at first but they let this more rhythmically free section run on way too long.
I agree with this and one of the other tracks this week has a similar intro that was too long. I think they're going for the "prayer" effect and I think that could be a musical characteristic of spiritual jazz- the slow horn melody over the rhythm section playing textures in one key area without any sense of time.

I think people might not be that excited for the SteepleChase theme but there's some fun stuff in there that I think people will be pleasantly surprised by.

I actually had a lot of stuff I wanted to include but had to edit a lot of it so I'll probably do another SteepleChase theme at some point.