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Duke Ellington – Blue Pepper (Far East of the Blues)

The last post looked at Duke Ellington’s album Money Jungle, a meeting of three of the greatest minds in jazz. We continue our journey with Ellington, this time looking at how he turned to the East for inspiration for his 1967 album, Far East Suite.

Max Roach – Effi

The previous post focussed on ‘Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting’ from Charles Mingus’ political and earthy album Blues & Roots. Today, I look at the album Members, Don’t Git Weary, released on Atlantic in 1968 by a musical contemporary of Mingus, the great Max Roach, one of the most influential drummers in the history of jazz. Roach was a bebop pioneer and changed the way drummers played jazz, elevating the drummer from accompanist to major player.

Jackie McLean – Sweet Love Of Mine

At first glance, it could be easy to mistake Jackie McLean’s album Demon’s Dance as a close sibling of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. Both were released in the same year and sport psychedelic cover artwork by Mati Klarwein but the similarity ends there. Whereas Bitches Brew was a mind-bending concoction of jazz, rock and funk, Demon’s Dance is beautiful example of modal hard bop, recorded three years earlier in 1967 and was the last of 21 albums that McLean recorded for Blue Note Records.

Nucleus – Torrid Zone

The year before The Ahmad Jamal Trio performed their composition ‘Bogota’ at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, a small group of British musicians by the name of Nucleus showcased compositions which pioneered a new sound, one that blended jazz with influences from rock and funk, now defined as ‘jazz-rock’ or ‘fusion’. This radical new approach to jazz saw the group win first prize at the festival and was responsible, along with a few other notable albums, in ushering jazz away from the modal and post-bop sounds of the 60s and into the psychedelic, funky fusion of the 70s.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio – Bogota

Immediately following The Awakening, the great Ahmad Jamal moves to Rhodes -as in the electric piano, not the place. The location is the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the 1972 release Outertimeinnerspace is another perfect album; arguably an easier achievement with only two tracks (further performances from this date appear on Freeflight, also on Impulse!), each comprising an entire side of the LP.

The Ahmad Jamal Trio – Dolphin Dance

Five years after Herbie Hancock set sail with his 1965 masterpiece Maiden Voyage, another great pianist released a masterpiece of his own. That pianist was the influential Ahmad Jamal and the album is The Awakening, released in 1970 on Impulse!, which contains a beautiful version of Hancock’s track ‘Dolphin Dance’.

Herbie Hancock – Maiden Voyage

Bobby Hutcherson’s version of the oceanic classic ‘Maiden Voyage’ shore is beautiful, but for me the original is unassailable. Concept albums are generally associated with rock music, but Herbie Hancock was one step ahead of The Beatles. Empyrean Isles (1964) is loosely based around Ancient Greek mythology, and Maiden Voyage (1965) is an album about the sea. Bookended by pieces that would become standards, ‘Maiden Voyage’ and ‘Dolphin Dance’, the record even features sea-based poetry as its sleeve notes. You might call them liner notes.

Bobby Hutcherson – Maiden Voyage

In his last post, Dan focussed on the fantastic track ‘Ghetto Lights’ from Bobby Hutcherson’s debut album as leader on Blue Note. Today’s post is another offering from the master of vibes, this time from his third album Happenings (1966) which saw him taking more of a commercial approach in comparison to his previous two albums which were much freer and avant-garde.

Yusef Lateef – Love Theme From Spartacus

Our last post focussed on the cool ‘La Nevada’ by The Gil Evans Orchestra. The focus of today’s post will be on Yusef Lateef’s ‘Love Theme From Spartacus’ which like ‘La Nevada’, was also released in 1961.

Welcome!

Greetings one and all, welcome to Jazz Impressions!

Jazz Impressions is a blog dedicated to sharing great music from across the spectrum with the aim of showing the connections between tracks by the musicians we love.