Category: Jazz

Miles Davis :: In A Silent Way

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In a year loaded with albums turning fifty, few have retained the genre-defying staying power and influence of In A Silent Way. Recorded during a single three-hour session in July 1969 with producer Teo Macero, the album marked a decisive and definitive turn for both Miles Davis and the future of jazz. Meditative, moody and minimal in approach, this was the calm before the storm as the following year would witness yet another reinvention of Davis with the release of Bitches Brew.

Alice Coltrane :: My Favorite Things

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While her late husband’s 1961 modal rendering helped reinvigorate the Rodgers and Hammerstein chestnut, the orchestral presentation Alice put forth a decade later is a beast of an altogether different stripe. Kicking off Coltrane’s sixth lp, World Galaxy, the instantly recognizable melody quickly dissolves amidst a very free, swirling cacophony of sound….something like the aural equivalent of David Bowman’s star gate sequence. High praise, indeed!

Alice Coltrane :: Live At The Berkeley Community Theater 1972

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This is a bootleg, make no mistake! But however you hear it, you gotta hear it (perhaps over on YouTube?). A major addition to the Alice Coltrane canon, this soundboard recording features the pioneering musician and her incredible band (Charlie Haden on bass, Ben Riley on drums, Aashish Khan on sarod, Pranesh Khan on tabla and Bobby W. on tamboura and percussion) journeying fearlessly across the astral plane. Four tracks, fours sides! Tons of AC’s intense organ hijinks – how did she get that crazy sound?

Deep Into Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of

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On Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of, the new age trappings are gone, the subtle accompaniment of piano, “gong cycles,” gamelan influences (based on his travels and study in Bali and Nepal), the still-in-there-someplace Midwestern Kottke vibes, all synthesized so exquisitely. The secret sauce in his playing is partly due to his instrument; an old Martin D-12-20 12-string with worn down frets and dead strings. He describes it as having a “peculiar internal resonance, as though it has a small concert hall inside of it.”