jazz-funk Archives - JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

George Duke – Peace

Our last post looked at Billy Cobham’s fusion classic ‘Heather’ from his album Crosswinds (1974) which featured the mellow tones of keyboardist George Duke. Flashing back a couple of years earlier to January 1971, a young George Duke had just left Frank Zappa’s group The Mothers Of Invention and joined saxophonist Cannonball Adderley’s new quintet, replacing pianist Joe Zawinul. The months that followed would prove formative for this young pianist and in this year he recorded two albums: Solus and The Inner Source, originally intended to be two separate albums but were later merged, released on German jazz label MPS in 1973.

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.

Freddie Hubbard – Red Clay

Holding the world record for the most recording sessions of any jazz bassist in history (2,221 as of 2015), Ron Carter has provided some of the world’s greatest bass lines: Joe Henderson’s ‘Power to the People’ (1969), Alice Coltrane’s ‘Blue Nile’ (1970) and Freddie Hubbard’s ‘Red Clay’ (1970).

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).

Herbie Hancock – Rain Dance

Happy International Jazz Day 2020! After a spell of beautiful spring sunshine, the British weather has gone back to its usual rainy habits. What better way therefore to celebrate with another Herbie track released a couple of years prior to his funky ‘Hang Up Your Hang Ups’.

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.

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew

Who better to lead us into the weird world of Miles Davis than his biographer, Ian Carr? We heard his electric Miles-inspired jazz-rock on ‘Torrid Zone’, and Bitches Brew (1970) is more or less fusion ground zero. Influenced by the music of Jimi Hendrix – and pissed off that rock stars were making more money than him without the musical ability – Davis mixed the aggression of rock with the most experimental aspects of jazz to create an album that sounded like neither genre, producing something closer to alien funk.

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.