Don't get me wrong I've got a good share of "real jazz" records in my collection. Blue Note, Impulse,Prestige, Verve, and Bluebird are all amongst my favorite labels of all time. For many those labels produced the records that are the standards by which jazz is judged. Buyers and critics alike (not everyone)pretty much dismiss records that came out after 1965. I know what I like in classic jazz, but I find a hard time reviewing it because I feel unqualified. I just don't know enough about music theory to comment. As jazz has continued to grow and folks have continued to push the boundaries, it has for the most part left me in the dust. I can catch glimpses of brilliance, but most of todays Jazz soars over my head. After cutting edge jazz pushed beyond mass appeal in the 60's, and rock took over the world, musicians pretty much had to try to fit in or find new lines of work. Local jazz scenes that once thrived (Newark,Detroit,Indianapolis) were on the way out. Some players made moves to rock (Miles,McLaughlin)and ended up crossing over pretty well, and over time gaining a little respect from the critics. Other players went more into a soul/blues/funk bag and were generaly reviled by the jazz press. The soul jazz crowd may have been the precursor of today's mostly treacley smooth jazz, but when these guys were laying it down in the 70's it was not smooth, and as hip-hop heads and jam band afficiandos have noted, there was a lot of sweat soaked, fun-filled, musically challenging, and downright funky music being created in what must have seemed like the death throes of Jazz at the time. One group that exemplified that era for me is Funk Inc. Working with Organ,tenor,guitar,drums, and congas (killer congas I might add) in Blues based textures on these 2 records from 72/73, Funk Inc. first fell into my lap during the acid jazz days of the 90's. There is one very mellow, very 70's Anti-war vocal cut, but the rest of these first 2 LP's are raw,dirty Jazz Funk, with strong blues guitar, swinging B-3, and banging funky drums. If you are into Medeski,Martin, and Wood, you should check 'em out. If you are into hip hop, the drums from,"Kool Is Back" have been sampled into countless rap tracks from folks like DJ Shadow, Geto Boys,and Jeru tha Damaja. So despite their humble beginnings in Indianapolis,IN. Funk Inc. are still influencing and inspiring folks today. You won't find a whole lot about Funk Inc. in any jazz tomes and I didn't see anything on wikipedia either, but folks who study grooves know they are not to be missed.
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...very nice, CB...I'm feeling you on that "smooth jazz" tip...it just doesn't do anything for me...I'm no musical theorist either but I know what swings and what doesn't (for me)...I like stuff from all of the labels you mentioned and Atlantic Records around the end of the 50s into the mid 60s had a grip of great releases (mostly artists like Coletrane and Mingus, etc. but I got turned on to Rahsaan Roland Kirk while digging around in their archives...Keith Jarrett and McCoy Tyner too...don't fret not being a born-again-hard method man...sometimes it helps get you exactly where you want to be, like it did for me...check this out
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Brilliant Crash quote:"That's one of the first lessons you learn: when you're listening closely to a really tight outfit "breathing" together, all that pretension is eviscerated, the nut gets cracked open and something else reveals itself. " Dug that piece.Thanks
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That smidgen of Funk Inc. sounds great. It's good to know about them.
In the early seventies it seemed like new jazz wasn't so interesting. Fusion seemed to combine the worst of jazz with the worst of rock and soul. Too many 13th chords and endless solos.
However, you inspired me to look at my shelves, and I found some names I can recommend. Abbey Lincoln, the singer. John Scofield, the guitarist, starting with his 1989 album _Flat Out_ until maybe a few years ago. Danny Gatton (the guitarist) & Joey DeFrancesco's _Relentless_ (1994) and especially Danny Gatton's Redneck Explosion's _Live at the Cellar Door_ from 1978 with Buddy Emmons the pedal steel guitarist. Joe Krown Organ Combo's _Funk Yard_ from 2002. Living Daylights from the mid-90s till around 2005, with their amazing electric bass player Arnie Livingston. Galactic's first two albums.
If I were a jazz musician, why not jettison the familiar jazz accompaniment and play jazz solos over some of the amazing hip hop accompaniment ideas that one hears behind the hits?
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Jazz is not something I know enough about to buy at random. I am very selective in what I buy, and make sure it is going to be good.
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@Spike-Danny Gatton..the guitar God..I remember reading a lot about him. Folks talking in hushed tones about an extraordinary virtuoso guitarist, conversant in all styles, but who played in bars around the DC area. I remember he got signed to a major and put out an LP (88 Elmira Street) that I really liked but didn't live up to the hype. I've heard but don't have the live stuff, which is definitley the way to go with him. Joe Krown Organ Combo!, I'm am on the lookout for that, sounds way cool.
Rawk and Crash-maybe it is time to poll the Mog-o-Sphere for a Jazz 101?
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Cody, I have the same problem as you with post-1965 jazz. And for pre-1965 jazz, I agree with Rawkkiddo - I'm very "selective" in what I choose. One of my problems is that jazz fans tend to be hard-core completeists, and many of those jazz albums have multitudinous alternative takes, and are "for collectors only". Also, I have a post-1965 attention span, and it seems there is always a lengthy drum solo lurking out there in the uncharted jazz waters, waiting to attack me.
What I want to do is to skim the jazz cream: I have the basics from Coltrane, Miles, Ellington, Monk, Mingus, even Chet Baker. Per CrashPryor, I even have a bit of Keith Jarrett and late "Enlightmentment era" McCoy Tyner. But what's the remaining Creme-de-la-creme? I second your vote for the Mog-o-Sphere Jazz 101!
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@aclason-OK, I'm game to set the Jazz 101 up..as for what I buy in jazz, it is mostly a label and liner note process. As far as those damn alternate takes and track listings done in chronology of their recording..I hate that. For example, Grant Green's beautiful Idle Moments album is presented that way:Master Take-Master Take-Alt version-Master-ALT-Master. I don't mind having the alternate takes, but please, for the LOVE of MIKE give me the album in it's original running order first.
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count me in on the Jazz 101 - I agree with ac about the "completist" tendency among jazz fans, which tends to "lock out" new listeners. When I first started getting into jazz, guys used to always test me all the time when I said the dangerous words "I like jazz." It was like being around a bunch of baseball stat guys . . . you felt like you needed to get the PhD. before you dared say you liked something. Or quote the entire Penguin Guide to Jazz. But I ended up finding solace in refuge in the Duke: "if it sounds good, it is good." And that's pretty much that, for me.
Funk, Inc. is new to me, but jazz is so broad and deep I'm not surprised. There are so many avenues, and so many places to get lost in. I personally don't think it's totally fair to paint all so-called "smooth jazz" artists with the same brush; "smooth jazz" does get a lot of people into jazz, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Personally, I try to avoid purists. I can appreciate them, but I think it's "anti-jazz" to be a "purist."
Maybe we could start, though, somewhere in the middle - 50s and 60s bop or something - those labels you mentioned have so much to treasure, and my experience of jazz has been mind-blowing. I'm up for turning on people who haven't heard some of that stuff on to it. I will never forget the first time I heard some of John Coltrane's early Prestige recordings. The music was so powerful, it changed my dreams. That's got to be worth some posts!
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Haha.... so I'm NOT totally lame and/or shallow because my favourite (i.e. most played) "Jazz" records (which in my mind are funk records anyway) are 70s stuff from Roy Ayers and Stanley Clarke... and I DO have some "classic" 50s/60s albums... not that I don't like those, I just hardly get around to play them... especially since I cut back on da weed...
(My sweet days of innocence are probably numbered though, what with the 101 coming and the threats of "Crash Courses" I'm getting (literally) from a certain mogger I let into my life...)
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I am definitely not a purist (see Funk Inc, Roy Ayers,Bob James..to name a few in my collection). Cant wait to see what folks come up with for Jazz 101
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Crash Courses”...oh, that's a promise, Berlin...still, you can't fake the funk, either...
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Funk Inc. is one of my favorites from the Soul Jazz groups if you want to call it that. I'm trying to post some samples but in the mean time check out these artists if you like Funk, Inc.:
Ivan "Boogaloo" Joe Jones Rusty Bryant The Crusaders
Spike - great rec on Joe Krown. If you like that NOLA soul jazz vibe, check out Stanton Moore's solo stuff and Robert Walter (living in NOLA now). That can bring up a whole other thread NOLA 101 (Eddie Bo, Chocolate Milk, Allen Toussaint, Meters).
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Hey DownHomeFunk
We did do a NOLA 101
and I see you found it,cool.