jazz

History Of Spiritual Jazz: 1955-2012

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In the final hours of Black History Month, I urge you to explore this marathon 12-hour Spiritual Jazz mix compiled by Black Classical. It’s a historical journey of Spiritual Jazz stretching from 1955-2012. This mix originally appeared on NTS Live, an online radio station based in London with studios in Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Manchester.

The catalog features recognized pioneers Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Gil Scott-Heron, Herbie Hancock, and Pharoah Sanders in addition to South African songstress Letta Mbulu and Brazilian percussion genius Airto. The cuts are deep and the mix is a crate diggers paradise.

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Kind Of Blue: A Reggae Interpretation By Jeremy Taylor

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Kind Of Blue

Back in 2009 the admirable Secret Stash Records (a cool label out of Minneapolis along the same lines as Numero Group) began working with the Jeremy Taylor estate, a music professor at NYU, to dust off this collection and breath new life into it via a blue vinyl-only release.

In the spring of 1981 a group of reggae studio musicians from Jamaica gathered in New York City under the direction of Jeremy Taylor, a music professor at NYU at that time. The result was this Reggae Interpretation of Kind of Blue.

Unfortunately, weeks after directing the sessions Taylor passed away in his Paris hotel room while on a speaking tour of Europe. A final mix of the album was never made and it was never released. Collectors have long spoken of this album and in the late 80s lo-fi cassette tapes of rough mixes circulated. No official release was ever issued until now.

The final release of the album has both final mixes on side-A and dub versions on side-B. A Reggae Interpretation Of Kind Of Blue is the result of their efforts. Here’s a sample for your listening pleasure:

So What

Workin’ It!

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These girls are WORKIN’ IT.

I created this video last night. The music is a song called “Zukunft” by the Estonian band Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot, which I also discovered while surfing around the web last night. Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot’s newest release “Compensator For The Accelerator” is available for download for free (as in beer) on their website, which, of course, is worth an additional 100 cool points. Their cover art states:

We praise the mp3 for giving the creative mind an opportunity to unleash itself from the established hierarchies of music distribution and bypass spoonfeeding by opinion leaders.

The website also contains a .pdf download of the cover and CD art that actually folds into a sleeve that will protectively hold your newly burnt disk. Anyways, cool music, nice design, and great attitude.

The video is of Gwen Verdon (Cacoon anyone?) shaking it to a dance choreographed by her husband, the talented Bob Fosse. The original dance was choreographed to a song called “Mexican Breakfast” by Pat Williams. As you can see Gwen really knew how to move and Fosse was way ahead of his time. Seriously, did Bob Fosse invent the bootyquake? Now go rent “All That Jazz” and “Caberet”, or just watch these videos.

As a bonus, here are three additional Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot songs:
Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot – Nina Robots That Shoot Laser Beams And Stuff
Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot – The Ride Ripoff
Fuck Yuo I Am A Robot – T.A.T.U. Remix

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