Date: 1969-1970
Release: BLUE NOTE #831875
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An album of previously unreleased material taken from two 1969-1970 sessions which capture the immensely talented trumpeter Donald Byrd in a transitional moment of artistic brilliance. The first two tracks, “Kofi” and “Fufu,” were both recorded during the 1969 session, and are the most original and imaginative compositions on the album. Rooted in the hypnotic African-infused rhythms of drummer Mickey Roker, bassist Ron Carter, and percussionists Airto and Dom Um Romao, these two tracks synthesize the modal, electric, hard bop, and funk strains of late 60s jazz. On “Kofi,” Lew Tabackin’s flute swirls freely above the thickly layered grooves and complex horn arrangements. Frank Foster plays with authority on “Fufu.” Byrd’s playing on Kofi shows the influence of his vastly superior rival, Miles Davis. Still, his own distinct sound shines through, as he plays with great fluidity and style.
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Date: July 1958 – May 1959 (recording)
Release: Rhino #81732
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Where I come from, deep in the heart of Dixie, we know him as Brother Ray. And for the past half a century, Brother Ray has been the chief pastor at the most raucous rock ‘n’ soul revivals this side of the pearly gates. If you don’t get goose bumps when you hear that raspy voice slowly maneuver its way through “Georgia on my Mind” (even if you’re not from Georgia), well, then there’s obviously something wrong with you. Seriously wrong.
Ray Charles’s career has seen him play for and with the entire spectrum of humanity. He’s hobnobbed with royalty, poverty, and even Muppets. But back when he was playing what the establishment had branded, “race music,” his label, Atlantic Records (the preeminent producers of R&B and soul) put out one of only three live Ray Charles albums. Aptly titled, Ray Charles Live, this classic presents two important performances captured ten months apart in July of 1958 and May of 1959.
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Date: 1975
Release: A&M/Horizon #0809
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“There is joy laced with confidence in this music, and sadness, or pathos, that is as much connected to the Blues as it is to the huge yearning of that sound in Eastern music… Throughout the record, one can hear the melding of Third World music and mysticism with Western instruments.”
– From Stanley Crouch’s original liner notes to Brown Rice
For Don Cherry, life and music were one and the same, and he consistently approached both with a daring sense of adventure. In his world-view, the art of living life and expressing life through music depended upon people “listening and traveling.” A global explorer, Cherry learned to play and compose for wood flutes, tamboura, gamelan, and other non-Western instruments.
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Date: April 1972 (recording)
Release: Columbia/Legacy #63568
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Recorded in April 1972, Ornette Coleman’s social-political rant Skies of America was a highly flammable LP. A composition, like Lazarus, rising out of the new cotton fields, the album was saturated in the lighter fluid of racial upheaval, the late-’60s assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Robert Kennedy, and the less-than-racially diverse frontlines of the Vietnam war. From the start it’s like a loaded gun, defying classification, even by avant-garde standards. In the America of the early ’70s, King’s dream gave way to Ornette’s nightmare—a horrific vision by a prophet whose pen was a brass horn, and the apocalyptic monster of inspiration, the mighty bald eagle.
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Date: July 4 and November 8, 1970
Release: IMPULSE #228
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A mystical excursion into the realm of jazz-infused Eastern music by the widow and the disciple of the stellar John Coltrane. Spiritual and atmospheric sounds flow out of the harp and the piano of Alice Coltrane and the soprano saxophone of . The title track opens the album with dreamy intensity, establishing the vibe that pervades the entire recording. Cecil McBee’s bass is prominent, flowing hypnotically throughout, and his solo on “Something About John Coltrane” is breathtaking. Pharoah plays majestically and with great dedication, making this one of his most passionate post-John Coltrane outings. Alice divides her time evenly between the harp and the piano. She demonstrates her unconventional virtuosity on piano with the 9 1/2 minute “Something About John Coltrane,” putting a distinct avant-garde twist on the blues. On harp she reveals an imaginative ability to explore Eastern sounds on an instrument largely associated with Western classical music.
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Date: December 9, 1964
Release: IMPULSE GRD-155
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Perhaps the most fully realized work of art dedicated to God since Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. No other musician has a church of worship built to honor their spirit (The Church of John Coltrane in San Francisco), and no other artist could be more deserving of such acknowledgment. In the liner notes, Coltrane dedicates the record to God as his “humble offering.” But Trane was not alone in his dedication.
His classic quartet–made up of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison — merge to form one transcendent entity, pushing beyond all limits to approach the divine. This recording represents the single greatest achievement of an artist who left the world with an extensive discography full of magnificence. The spiritual intensity of A Love Supreme leaves one profoundly moved and quietly ecstatic. An album to be heard nightly, before bed, like a prayer.
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Date: November 1961 – November 1963 (recorded)
Release: Pablo #44332
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This year I started teaching English for the first time, in a New York community college. The student population is almost exclusively goal-oriented. They take their humanities courses because they must in order to get to their careers, not because they like literature, and so I am, in a sense, preaching to the disinterested and the damned, arts-wise.
It’s a challenge, but for an arts evangelist like myself, it’s a dream. This is why people preach to the damned: It’s fun, and you might save a soul, bringing one into the flock of, in my case, the Church of Art.
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Date: May 25, 1961
Release: Rhino #79965
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John Coltrane never stopped wondering what he wanted from music, and never stopped pushing the boundaries. Trane genuinely strove to be saintly in his devotion to the divine, creating a body of deeply spiritual music that has come to be regarded as holy by his many devotees. His musical legacy was officially consecrated in 1971, when the Church of Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane was founded in San Francisco. A gentle and enigmatic man of many voices, Trane was an often fiery, shockingly original musician. Put on any of his records, and the sounds emanating from his saxophone crackle with life. While his music was criticized by some as being too “aggressive,” Trane knew (as some people “knew” in the 1960s) that love was the answer. His albums gained in momentum, one after the other, until his death in 1967, when perhaps he finally went even further beyond.
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Date: 1972
Release: MCA MVP Japan 20024
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Most people think that when the Jazz Crusaders dropped the “Jazz” from their name, they also dropped the jazz from their playing. When the band first decided to call themselves the Crusaders, it was only to expand their musical horizons beyond what was narrowly defined as “jazz” at the time.
True, the band quickly came to symbolize the commercial dumbing-down of once vibrant and creative jazz musicians in the lean years of the 1970s. And true, the band eventually turned their backs on quality, ignoring their jazz legacy in favor of a slick pop repertoire that quickly degenerated into over-produced elevator music with a beat. But what most people fail to realize is that the Crusaders did not just suddenly decide to purge themselves of all their musical talents and integrity in exchange for fat pay checks. In reality, the Crusaders had a short-lived period of transition in the early ‘70s that was damn good. Crusaders I is not only their most successful post-Jazz Crusaders album, it stands as one of the highpoints of their entire productive career (that is, before they started cranking out worthless fluff).
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Date: July 1969
Release: Jazz Door #1294
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Recommending a Miles record is a lot like making a public service announcement: it’s a strong statement of the obvious that surprisingly large numbers of people still need to hear, like smoking kills or friends don’t let friends drive drunk.
Without question, this hard to find European CD is one of the most important historical documents in modern music. It represents nothing less than a missing link in the well documented musical evolution of Miles Davis. This flawlessly recorded live set captures Miles at a pivotal moment: July, 1969. It was a time when massive changes were rocking his world. Miles was in the process of leaving large parts of himself behind–the standards, the mute, the sheet music. Something deep was happening to him and his music, something monstrous was brewing, and the world would soon be shaken by Miles’ voodoo. To put it in historical terms, July 1969 found Miles and band playing at the Montreux Jazz Festival just a few weeks prior to embarking on the epic Bitches Brew sessions. These were the final days before the bomb.
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