VARIOUS ARTISTS - Spiritual Jazz 13 Now!
Modern Sounds For The 21st Century
Jazzman Records
Various artists including Shabaka and the Ancestors, Angel Bat Dawid, Idris Ackamoor, Nat Birchall, Jimi Tenor & KabuKabu, Chip Wickham, Steve Reid, Makaya McKraven Jamie Saft Quartet and others.
The term ‘Spiritual Jazz’ has been much bandied about of late, in a manner that has not been universally welcomed: a certain amount of suspicion has arisen in some quarters that the concept itself is an intrinsically meretricious piece of marketing-speak and that true spirituality has no need to declare itself. Such an attitude, however justified, will surely be mollified when encountering the contents of this double LP set, as the music itself is generally so unaffectedly sincere as to allay criticism. In general the genre title refers back to the loose, anything-goes attitudes of the late 60s and early 70s when the stern standards of modern jazz had been thoroughly infiltrated by hippie consciousness and sincerity and a kind of blissed-out experimentalism took precedence over rigorous theoretical explorations. Before long of course the experimentalism congealed into its own set of clichés, and the entire scene was rather looked down upon by the establishment until its relatively recent excavation. The classics of the genre can be received as either unjustly neglected fountains of inspiration or faintly embarrassing relics of an indulgent era, depending on the listeners’ tolerance for side-long mellow minor-key jams spiced with tambura, groovy hand percussion and raggedly enthusiastic chanting. There’s something in the open-ended directness of the style that appeals today, and this release follows on no less than 12 volumes of historic material from the 50s to the 80s already reissued by Jazzman to include only material recorded over the past 15 years. It’s a fascinating overview of how the music has adapted and evolved reflexively: tracks by original operatives like Idris Ackamoor and Steve Reid sound like they’ve travelled directly from 1973, preserving a certain artless quality while others like Chip Wickham’s ‘Shamal Wind’ and Jamie Saft’s ‘Vessels’ wear their influences on their sleeves but sound tidied up for a new generation. There are punchy, focussed efforts like Makaya McCraven’s gimbri-driven ‘Gnawa’ or Jimi Tenor’s ‘Suite Meets’ alongside deliciously woozy eccentricities like Akeebu’s ‘Slow Sweet Burn’, bigger names like Shabaka Hutchins and the Ancestors and Nat Birchall, and generally enough variation on the theme to keep things interesting throughout. Sometimes, as on ‘Palms To Heaven’ by Cosmic Range, we seem to skirt dangerously close to exotic pastiche, but one the track starts cooking it makes more sense. And by the end the ‘Spiritual’ tag does genuinely seem justified, as everyone seems like they really mean it - whatever ‘it’ may be.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
Modern Sounds For The 21st Century
Jazzman Records
Various artists including Shabaka and the Ancestors, Angel Bat Dawid, Idris Ackamoor, Nat Birchall, Jimi Tenor & KabuKabu, Chip Wickham, Steve Reid, Makaya McKraven Jamie Saft Quartet and others.
The term ‘Spiritual Jazz’ has been much bandied about of late, in a manner that has not been universally welcomed: a certain amount of suspicion has arisen in some quarters that the concept itself is an intrinsically meretricious piece of marketing-speak and that true spirituality has no need to declare itself. Such an attitude, however justified, will surely be mollified when encountering the contents of this double LP set, as the music itself is generally so unaffectedly sincere as to allay criticism. In general the genre title refers back to the loose, anything-goes attitudes of the late 60s and early 70s when the stern standards of modern jazz had been thoroughly infiltrated by hippie consciousness and sincerity and a kind of blissed-out experimentalism took precedence over rigorous theoretical explorations. Before long of course the experimentalism congealed into its own set of clichés, and the entire scene was rather looked down upon by the establishment until its relatively recent excavation. The classics of the genre can be received as either unjustly neglected fountains of inspiration or faintly embarrassing relics of an indulgent era, depending on the listeners’ tolerance for side-long mellow minor-key jams spiced with tambura, groovy hand percussion and raggedly enthusiastic chanting. There’s something in the open-ended directness of the style that appeals today, and this release follows on no less than 12 volumes of historic material from the 50s to the 80s already reissued by Jazzman to include only material recorded over the past 15 years. It’s a fascinating overview of how the music has adapted and evolved reflexively: tracks by original operatives like Idris Ackamoor and Steve Reid sound like they’ve travelled directly from 1973, preserving a certain artless quality while others like Chip Wickham’s ‘Shamal Wind’ and Jamie Saft’s ‘Vessels’ wear their influences on their sleeves but sound tidied up for a new generation. There are punchy, focussed efforts like Makaya McCraven’s gimbri-driven ‘Gnawa’ or Jimi Tenor’s ‘Suite Meets’ alongside deliciously woozy eccentricities like Akeebu’s ‘Slow Sweet Burn’, bigger names like Shabaka Hutchins and the Ancestors and Nat Birchall, and generally enough variation on the theme to keep things interesting throughout. Sometimes, as on ‘Palms To Heaven’ by Cosmic Range, we seem to skirt dangerously close to exotic pastiche, but one the track starts cooking it makes more sense. And by the end the ‘Spiritual’ tag does genuinely seem justified, as everyone seems like they really mean it - whatever ‘it’ may be.
Reviewed by Eddie Myer
