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Spiritual jazz (or astral jazz) [1] is a sub-genre of jazz that originated in the United States during the 1960s. The genre is hard to characterize musically but draws from free , avant-garde and modal jazz and thematically focuses on transcendence and spirituality .
Apr 13, 2017 · Spiritual jazz is often more about a feeling than a specific approach, but with Easter just ahead of us, we’re turning to the music that speaks to something beyond our earthly understanding. Take a trip through some deeply soulful and mystical masterpieces with our list of 10 essential spiritual jazz albums.
- A Love Supreme (1964): John Coltrane
- Thembi (1971): Pharoah Sanders
- Sahara (1972): Mccoy Tyner
- Music Is The Healing Force of The Universe (1969): Albert Ayler
- Music For Zen Meditation (1964): Tony Scott
- Sleeping Beauty (1979): Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra
- Journey in Satchidananda (1971): Alice Coltrane
- Prepare Thyself to Deal with A Miracle (1973): Rahsaan Roland Kirk
- Brown Rice (1975): Don Cherry
- The Epic (2015): Kamasi Washington
Arguably the first ever spiritual jazz album, John Coltrane’s masterpiecelaid down a template that has never been equaled, and certainly not bettered. The music is a powerful declaration of spiritual awakening, and the saxophonist’s prayer and thanks to God. The resultant music, recorded in a single session on 9th December, 1964 transcends anything...
Saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders was there almost there at the beginnings of spiritual jazz, and would develop this side of his musical persona alongside John Coltrane. Performing with Coltrane on some his later works after A Love Supreme, he can be heard on the big band recording Ascension, and would be ‘Trane’s choice of second saxophonist playing alo...
Another (extremely close) associate of John Coltrane, pianist McCoy Tynerhad never been entirely comfortable with later music, and after his departure from the band seemed to lose his direction and not sure in which area he should focus his music. With Sahara came a return to form in a set that is engaging, exciting and focused. A core quartet is u...
The music of Albert Aylerhas never been an easy listen, but then that is not what Ayler was about. From his earliest recordings the saxophonist was in search of new sounds and ways to express himself and his message on his instrument. While he was often lambasted during his short career, Ayler mission statement was not blindly forge ahead with the ...
Tony Scott has become something of a forgotten man in jazz. Being a clarinettist with an affinity for bebop immediately made him stand out from the crowd. During the forties and fifties, he would frequently be heard working with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, and Bill Evans. However, he would become disillusioned with the jazz scen...
Sun Ra, born Herman “Sonny” Blount, claimed that he hailed from Saturn and was sent to earth on a mission to preach peace. Sun Ra’s music is often described as futuristic but in reality, is a bland of the traditional, the avant-garde and Ra’ own ingenuity as an arranger, composer and pioneer of the synthesizer. Astral jazz for all it’s association ...
A fascinating album that blends the spiritual with the combined musical thinking of pianist and harpist Alice Coltrane, and her late husband John Coltrane. Itis not unkind to suggest that the vision presented on Journey In Satchidananda is not all Alice’s, it was only recorded three years after her husband’s death and she had been inextricably boun...
Kirk was a blind multi -instrumentalist renowned for playing three saxophones simultaneously. He once asserted that he was “out to catch the sound of the sun”, and claimed to breathe through his ears. However crazy these ideas may now sound, Kirk’s multi-instrumentalism was no party trick but a totally original playing technique that resulted in so...
Don Cherry was a true nomad, both in the literal sense and in the musical. If he would spend much of time in the late sixties and seventies in Europe he would also frequently turn up to learn and play in India, Korea and Latin America. As such it is fair to say that his music was often of no fixed abode, and that is the beauty in listening to Cherr...
If the heyday for spiritual jazz was the 1960’s and 70s, there has been a steady revival and interest in this particular sub-genre of jazz in recent years – not least due to the arrival of musician Kamasi Washington, and his major label debut released in 2015. The Epic by name, and epic by nature: everything about this album was done large. A three...
Sep 25, 2015 · Astral Traveling: The Ecstasy of Spiritual Jazz. In the 1960s, John Coltrane led a musical movement that saw artists striking out beyond jazz’s constraints and striving toward spiritual...
- Andy Beta
- 8 min
- John Coltrane and Impulse Records! From John Coltrane’s Love Supreme to the advent of Impulse! records and his musical disciples who carried the creative torch after his passing, we examine the place spiritual jazz occupies in the world of jazz and avant-garde music at large and the music markers who broadened hearts and minds while making it.
- Pharoah Sanders. Coltrane’s death left a spiritual and creative void that was later occupied by his wife Alice Coltrane and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders – both members of his later groups.
- Tony Scott. Like Sanders, clarinetist Tony Scott was another early proponent of world music and his record, Music for Zen Meditation in 1964, is considered to be the first New Age record.
- Alice Coltrane. As the “other” Coltrane, Alice was a controversial figure in jazz, though not by choice. While her talent was respected, she was blamed for breaking up the greatest jazz group of the mid-60s when she replaced McCoy Tyner as pianist in her husband’s rhythm section.
In the mid-'60s, a small group of jazz musicians reacted to sociopolitical turbulence with a yearning for transcendence, embracing various strains of spirituality. John Coltrane's “A Love Supreme” offered a musical salute to the divine, while Albert Ayler had a rugged take on gospel (“Love Cry”).
Oct 1, 2013 · The Best Spiritual Jazz Albums of All Time. View reviews, ratings, news & more regarding your favorite band.
