June 06, 2007
I DON'T KNOW HOW I GOT HERE
So I have been working on a nice summertime mix as a sort of bon voyage to myself and I realized 4 hours later that I side tracked and ended up with a ethno-jazz compilation in addition to my summertime pop mix.
This is a compilation of ethnic jazz music mostly from the 60s-70s that was inspired by a cultural shift towards travel, history, and um, culture. This was no doubt brought to us by the strengthening civil rights movement and the modern world being technologically advanced enough to provide better and cheaper air travel. A back to the home land, finally! mentality. I think it is important to realize how much of an impact this made to Black American jazz culture because jazz music seems lost upon people my age. White people also got their fun with the Nonesuch Explorer series. But this music lets you experience the world in a different, and perhaps richer and truer sense as this was what was happening then and there. Great scenes like the Chicago AACM scene (Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Philip Cohran) began introducing world motifs into their avant guard compositions. I talked briefly about this in one of my very first posts but basically from what I can figure there were several schools of thought from this re-enlightenment. 1) Spirituality (Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane) 2) Ethno-Cultural Studies (Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman) 3) Direct Performance-Art Interpretations (Art Ensemble of Chicago). Forgive me if I am way too brief with information. This is a subject that is big enough for a thesis and I am definitely no expert. This music warrants endless attention.
This mix is an introduction to ethno-free-jazz. Hopefully there are some treats in here for folks. I must say, the very limited reissue of Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble a few years ago is one of my favorite records I own. I have been trying to fight laziness and start a treasure island records post series for a while now and this was going to be one of my first mentioned. It seems to have inspired the wonderful Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Ensemble Ramadan in Space Time reissue last year. At least I tell myself that.
You might be wondering what the hell Masada is doing on this but a) that track is from a great fucking album and b) you totally get the Northern African traveling caravan motif.
Anyways, have a fun and safe journey.
JAZZHAMMER.'s Maiden Voyage Mix
78M 02S
01) SALAH RAGEB AND THE CAIRO JAZZ ENSEMBLE - DAWN
02) PHILIP COHRAN - THE MINSTREL
03) MULATU ASTATKE - METCHE DERSHE
04) ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - THEME AMOUR UNIVERSAL
05) ALICE COLTRANE - JOURNEY IN SATCHIDANANDA
06) DON CHERRY - BLUE LAKE
07) PHAROAH SANDERS - MORNING PRAYER
08) MASADA - NE'EMAN
09) ARCHIE SHEPP - NEW AFRICA
10) ALBERT AYLER - JAPAN/UNIVERSAL INDIANS
Maiden Voyage Mix
192 KBPS | 109 MB
(right click save as)
Posted by Fran at June 6, 2007 09:02 PM