| Spiritual jazz | |
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 Contemporary spiritual jazz musician Kamasi Washington performing | |
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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. [2] [3] John Coltrane's 1965 album A Love Supreme is considered landmark in the genre. [4] [2]
Spiritual jazz does not follow a strictly defined musical style but generally features elements of free jazz, avant-garde jazz and modal jazz with influences from Asian and African music. [4] [3] Quartal harmonies, the Dorian mode, meditative sounds as well as the musical language of blues and bebop are often employed in spiritual jazz. [3] Musicians frequently play instruments not traditionally used in jazz or western music, electric keyboards and utilise the recording studio as an instrument. [3]
Critics usually associate spiritual jazz with the 1960s but the beginnings of the genre can be traced to the 1940s and 1950s in works such as Black, Brown and Beige by Duke Ellington, Zodiac Suite by Mary Lou Williams, and Jazz at the Vespers by George Lewis. [3]
During the 1960s in the United States, the civil rights movement was occurring, [2] causing societal change and political movements. [5] As a result, African-American people gained more freedom to celebrate their culture and to express themselves religiously. [2] This led to a desire to push the conventions of jazz, with some artists choosing to search for transcendence and spirituality in their music. [2]
John Coltrane's 1965 album A Love Supreme is generally considered the genesis of spiritual jazz though Coltrane can be heard developing the sound on the song "Spiritual" recorded four years earlier. [5] [6] Treblezine wrote "Spiritual jazz begins, essentially, with John Coltrane," while Pitchfork wrote "This musical exploration [of spirituality] was epitomized by tenor saxophonist John Coltrane". [2] [4] A Love Supreme and other works by John Coltrane inspired other jazz musicians to create music searching for transcendence. [2] [4] For example, Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry were considered to have taken inspiration from Coltrane's spiritual works. [4]
After John Coltrane's death in 1967, his wife Alice Coltrane and Sanders—both who had previously played with Coltrane—were some of the first to continue the sound of the genre. [1] Coltrane's 1971 album Journey in Satchidananda combined spiritual jazz with influences from Hindustani classical music, [2] after her journey into spirituality with help from Swami Satchidananda. [4] Journey in Satchidananda used ragas, harps, sitars, and ouds to achieve its sound. [2] [4] Pharoah Sanders took inspiration from Arabic, Indian, and Afro-Cuban music to create early spiritual jazz albums, including Tauhid (1967) and Karma (1969). [1]
Many artists other than Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders were inspired by John Coltrane's spiritual jazz works. Prevalent artists of this era of spiritual jazz included Lonnie Liston Smith, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, and Don Cherry. [1] Saxophonist Albert Ayler was a student of John Coltrane, known for his "uncanny, visceral, and startlingly new" [2] take on jazz tradition and his use of spirituals, as seen in 1969's Music is the Healing Force of the Universe. [1] [2] Electric keyboardist Lonnie Liston Smith, inspired by his work with Pharaoh Sanders, released his debut album Astral Traveling in 1973. [1] [7] According to Brian Zimmerman, "While [Astral Traveling] does tap into that spiritual element, it's got a "poppier" vein running through it." [7]
Bandleader Sun Ra's spiritual jazz was influenced by Egyptology and went on to inspire Afrofuturism. [1] [2] According to Jazziz, Space Is the Place (1973) is one of Ra's "most famous albums". [7] Saxophonist Azar Lawrence—described as a "Coltrane devotee" by KCRW—released Bridge into the New Age in 1974. [8] The album has been influential on young jazz musicians in London, as recent as the 2020s. [9]
Spiritual jazz was primarily present during the 1960s and 1970s, although the genre is still currently created to a lesser extent. [7] Examples of spiritual jazz albums from the 2010s and 2020s include The Epic by Kamasi Washington (2015), [4] [8] Wisdom of Elders by Shabaka & The Ancestors (2016), [10] There is a Place by Maisha (2019), [7] Reverence by Muriel Grossman (2019), [7] and Cosmic Transitions by Isaiah Collier & The Chosen Few (2021). [11] According to Treblezine, "Kamasi Washington brought spiritual jazz back to popular consciousness on a wider scale in 2015 with the release of [The Epic]". [4] KCRW wrote: "Washington is attracting many young enthusiasts to the jazz scene." [8]
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.
Pharoah Sanders was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", Sanders played a prominent role in the development of free jazz and spiritual jazz through his work as a member of John Coltrane's groups in the mid-1960s, and later through his solo work. He released over thirty albums as a leader and collaborated extensively with vocalist Leon Thomas and pianist Alice Coltrane, among many others. Fellow saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world".
Alice Lucille Coltrane, also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda or simply Turiya, was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader and Hindu spiritual leader.
A Monastic Trio is the first solo album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in 1968 at the John Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, New York, and was released later that year by Impulse! Records. On the album, Coltrane appears on piano and harp, and is joined by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Rashied Ali, all of whom were members of John Coltrane's last quintet. Drummer Ben Riley also appears on one track. The album was reissued on CD in 1998 with three additional tracks, one of which is a piano solo recorded in 1967.
Journey in Satchidananda is the fourth solo album by Alice Coltrane. Four of the album's tracks were recorded at the Coltrane home studios in Dix Hills, New York, in November 1970, while the remaining track was recorded live at the Village Gate in July of that year. It was released by Impulse! Records in 1971. On the album, Coltrane appears on piano and harp, and is joined by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, bassists Cecil McBee and Charlie Haden, and drummer Rashied Ali. Vishnu Wood also appears on oud on the live track, while the studio recordings also feature Majid Shabazz on bells and tambourine and Tulsi on tanpura.
Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It was recorded at A & R Studios in New York City on July 1, 1970, and released on Impulse! Records in the same year. The album's title is bilingual: "Summun Bukmun Umyun" is Arabic for "Deaf Dumb Blind".
Ascension is a jazz album by John Coltrane recorded in June 1965 and released in 1966. It is considered a watershed in Coltrane's work, with the albums recorded before it being more conventional in structure and the albums recorded after it being looser, free jazz inspired works. In addition, it signaled Coltrane's interest in moving away from the quartet format. AllMusic called it "the single recording that placed John Coltrane firmly into the avant-garde".
Donald Ayler was an American jazz trumpeter. He was best known for his participation in concerts and recordings by groups led by his older brother, saxophonist Albert Ayler. An obituary in The Wire praised his "buzzing, declamatory trumpet playing, which was part Holy Roller primitive, part avant garde firebrand".
Karma is a jazz recording by the American tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in May 1969 on the Impulse! label, with catalog number AS 9181. A pioneering work of the spiritual jazz style, it has become Sanders' most popular and critically acclaimed album.
Thembi is the seventh album by free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in 1971.
First Meditations (for quartet) is an album by John Coltrane recorded on September 2, 1965 and posthumously released in 1977. It is a quartet version of a suite Coltrane would record as Meditations two months later with an expanded group. Along with Sun Ship, recorded a week earlier, First Meditations represents the final recordings of Coltrane's classic quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones.
Tauhid is a jazz album by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It was the second album released under his name, and his first album on the Impulse! label. It was recorded on November 15, 1966 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, four days after the concert heard on the John Coltrane album Offering: Live at Temple University, and was released in 1967, after the death of Coltrane, with whom Sanders had played since 1965. Tauhid was reissued in 2017 on Anthology Recordings. The album marks guitarist Sonny Sharrock's first appearance on a record, as well as one of pianist Dave Burrell's earliest recordings.
Jewels of Thought is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. It was recorded at Plaza Sound Studios in New York City on October 20, 1969, and was released on Impulse! Records in the same year. The 1998 reissue merged "Sun In Aquarius" into one 27-minute-long track.
Elevation is a live album by American saxophonist and composer Pharoah Sanders, released in 1973 on the Impulse! label.
Pharoah Sanders Live... is a live album by American saxophonist and composer Pharoah Sanders released on the Theresa label.
Welcome to Love is an album led by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders recorded in 1990 and first released on the Dutch Timeless label. The album features jazz standards, many of which were also recorded by John Coltrane.
Josef Leimberg is a producer, lyricist, and trumpet player from Los Angeles. He contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and is currently signed with World Galaxy, the jazz imprint of Alpha Pup Records.
Stockholm, Berlin 1966 is a live album by saxophonist and composer Albert Ayler, recorded in Europe in 1966 and released on the Swiss hatOLOGY label in 2011. The Berlin tracks were previously released on The Berlin Concerts - 1966, Albert Ayler Live In Europe 1964 - 1966, and the compilation Holy Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962–70) (Revenant). All of the tracks were reissued on a 2021 Hat Hut release titled Albert Ayler Quintet 1966: Berlin, Lörrach, Paris & Stockholm. Revisited.
Carnegie Hall '71 is a live album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded at Carnegie Hall in New York City on February 21, 1971, and was released in 2018 by the Hi Hat label. On the album, Coltrane appears on piano and harp, and is joined by saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, bassists Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee, and drummers Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis.
He made a trio of funky spiritual jazz albums under his own name in the mid '70s; 1974's Bridge Into The New Age has been particularly influential among young players in London, and was recently reissued.
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