hip hop Archives - JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

David Axelrod – Holy Thursday

It seems fitting that our 50th post should cover a landmark album: Song of Innocence (1968) by David Axelrod – as in the producer of Cannonball Adderley’s The Black Messiah (1971), not the political strategist behind two Barack Obama victories and zero Ed Miliband ones.

John Abercrombie – Timeless

‘Changeless’ and ‘endless’ were the defining terms of our last post on virtuoso pianist Keith Jarrett. Continuing this theme, we follow with ‘Timeless’, the beautiful final track on guitarist John Abercrombie’s 1975 album of the same name, which like Jarrett’s Changeless, was also released on ECM and featured Jack DeJohnette on drums.

Idris Muhammad – Piece Of Mind

After a couple of months in hibernation, we’re back! In our last post, Dan chose Freddie Hubbard’s fusion classic ‘Red Clay’, released on CTI Records in 1970. A year after this album was released, CTI founded Kudu Records, a sub-label intended to showcase artists with a more commercial appeal to their CTI counterparts. Consisting of mainly black musicians, Kudu’s releases were often rooted in the soul jazz sound that was popular at the time. Drummer Idris Muhammad’s defining masterpiece Power Of Soul, released on the label in 1974 is one of the standout albums of the Kudu catalogue.

Jack DeJohnette – Epilog

What do Mahavishnu Orchestra’s ‘Vital Transformation’ and Jack DeJohnette’s ‘Epilog’ have in common apart from being great examples of jazz fusion? They both begin with incredible drum breaks. ‘Epilog’ is the final track on DeJohnette’s album Sorcery released on Prestige in 1974.

Miles Davis – Rated X

Two years after Miles released On The Corner came his album Get Up With It (1974) on Columbia Records, marking the end of a seven year period of electric jazz experimentation. This was a compilation album of songs Davis recorded between 1970 and 1974, many of which were part of the sessions for his earlier albums Jack Johnson (1971) and On The Corner (1972).

Miles Davis – Black Satin

Following on from Herbie Hancock’s jazz-robotics on ‘Rain Dance‘, we turn to another album that was Miles ahead of its time, and features three of the musicians who would go on to appear on Sextant: Herbie Hancock (keys), Bennie Maupin (bass clarinet) and Billy Hart (drums).

Herbie Hancock – Hang Up Your Hang Ups

In terms of musical revolutions, Herbie Hancock going electric rivals Bob Dylan at Newport and Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ for the title of most controversial industry moment.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio – Dolphin Dance

Five years after Herbie Hancock set sail with his 1965 masterpiece Maiden Voyage, another great pianist released a masterpiece of his own. That pianist was the influential Ahmad Jamal and the album is The Awakening, released in 1970 on Impulse!, which contains a beautiful version of Hancock’s track ‘Dolphin Dance’.

The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble – Mystic Voyage (For Roy Ayers)

Dan’s last post focussed on Bill Evans’ version of ‘Theme From “Spartacus”‘ from the album Conversations With Myself where Evans overdubs three piano tracks to create a sort of musical conversation. This idea of overdubbing, specifically within a jazz context, made me think of an album that was released almost 50 years later but adopts a similar approach. That album is Miles Away by The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble, released on Stones Throw Records in 2010.

Yusef Lateef – Love Theme From Spartacus

Our last post focussed on the cool ‘La Nevada’ by The Gil Evans Orchestra. The focus of today’s post will be on Yusef Lateef’s ‘Love Theme From Spartacus’ which like ‘La Nevada’, was also released in 1961.