Jazz in the late 70s / early 80s (jazz goes pop, jazz goes disco)

sure his woman loved him.

-- The Amazing Jaxon! (jaso...), July 13th, 2005 5:01 PM. (jaxon)

SEPARATED AT BIRTH.

I heard a Mongo Santamaria "jazz disco" album that was DIRE. Jimmy Smith did one too, Sit On It, also terrible.

so did you pick up the "british hustle" comp on soul jazz? it's all this sort of stuff. i was about to suggest george duke / MPS label but i see you know all about it. scour the cutout bins for the recent japanese comp "future sound of mps" for some great prog-rock-into-disco type jazz fusion. sort of a flora purim vibe, but smoother.

hmmm ... dunn pearson jr?

If this is disco, point us in the direction of Studio 54! The album's one of Ra's greatest from the 70s -- recorded in Italy in 1978, and featuring some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record! The track "Disco 3000" is an incredible workout on synthesizer, with a tiny bit of drum machine, a little "Space Is The Place" breakdown, and all of the wild sound you'd expect from a Sun Ra album. The cut goes on for quite some time, and is really fantastic. Side two of the record features two more long tracks -- the sweetly soulful "Friendly Galaxy", a great soul jazz number, and "Dance Of The Cosmo Aliens", which has spooky organ, frenetic bass, and sombre percussion! (Beautiful legit reissue -- with heavy vinyl and a great cover package that also includes notes on the music!)

xpost. that sun ra sounds great. haven't heard poopoo lala. great name :/

there's a long (2min?) bit of silence/ambience on the front of the track. it's not broken.

it's firmly on the "disco" side of the divide but with a definite jazz sensibility - lots of soloing, lots of creative percussion, challenging chord progressions, etc.

also at the time i was picking up stuff on the more r'n'b-ish tip. stuff by Kashif, Evelyn King, The Whispers, Howard Johnson, Dynasty, Odyssey, Midnight Star, the Deele, Cameo (SOLAR records in general), SOS Band, etc.

Miroslav Vitous -- Magical Shepard

i've often said i like music that has star trek qualities (those weird close intervals).

i thought i had a Vitous album (have the Weather Report albums), but just looked and it's a Michael Urbaniak album (great fusion album w/his wife on vocals).

here's another one: Taking Sides: Spaceball By Larry Young's Fuel -vs- Life On Mars By Dexter Wansel

you're out of your mind. the late 70s and early 80 are only second in my book to the late 60s-early 70s. you've got kraftwerk, the beginnings of hip hop, punk, post punk, the best reggae i've ever heard (On-U Sound, Wackies, Mad Professor), the best Funkadelic records, the beginnings of industrial (Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire). if you're not into this style of jazz (understandable, took me a bit), there's always the NY loft scene.

certainly though, in '79 time it was something of a thrill to see both herbie h and toop/beresford etc. (flying lizards) on TOTP; it was a bit like "WE'VE WON!" (except of course we hadn't) the pop group/slits/prince far-i/don cherry quadruple bill tour was for me the peak of everything (at the time, and perhaps still is now).

Tales of Captain Black James Blood Ulmer (w/Ornette)
Dancing In Your Head Ornette Coleman
Body Meta Ornette Coleman
Lenox Avenue Breakdown Arthur Blythe
In The Tradition Arthur Blythe
Air Lore Air
The Great Pretender Lester Bowie
Are You Glad To Be In America? James Blood Ulmer
Black Rock James Blood Ulmer
Freelancing James Blood Ulmer
Odyssey James Blood Ulmer
Defunkt Defunkt
"Strangling Me With Your Love"/"Razor's Edge" Defunkt

That said, I picked up Lester Bowie's WORKS compilation for a dollar the other week and was kinda knocked out by "B Funk", which appears elsewhere on his AVANT POP album. Is the rest of the lp like this cut? If so, I'm on it.

you're out of your mind. the late 70s and early 80 are only second in my book to the late 60s-early 70s. you've got kraftwerk, the beginnings of hip hop, punk, post punk, the best reggae i've ever heard (On-U Sound, Wackies, Mad Professor), the best Funkadelic records, the beginnings of industrial (Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire). if you're not into this style of jazz (understandable, took me a bit), there's always the NY loft scene.

-- The Amazing Jaxon! (jaso...), July 13th, 2005.

No, you're right, it was hyperbole. But I stand by what I said about jazz from that time.

Favourite tracks:

(Falling Like) Dominoes / Wind Parade - Donald Byrd
Running Away / Can't You See Me - Roy Ayers
Expansions - Lonnie Liston Smith
Everywhere But Loose - Oneness Of Juju
Feel The Real - David Bendeth
To Prove My Love - Ned Doheny
Joy And Pain / Back In Stride - Maze
The Groove - Rodney Franklin
Risin' To The Top - Keni Burke
Dancin' - Grey & Hanks
Disco Nights (Rock Freak) - GQ
Runaway Love - Linda Clifford
Let The Music Play - Charles Earland
Dancing In Outer Space - Atmosphear
Love Injection - Trussel
All About The Papers - The Dells
I Like What You're Doing To Me - Young & Company
A Lover's Holiday / The Glow Of Love - Change
Take Some Time Out For Love - Salsoul Orchestra
Time Is Right - MCB
I Know You, I Live You - Chaka Khan
Annie Mae - Natalie Cole
Barely Breaking Even - Universal Robot Band
What Are We Gonna Do About It - Mercy Mercy
Brazilian Love Affair - George Duke
Southern Freeez - Freeez
Ain't No Time Fa Nothing - The Futures
Number One - Patrice Rushen
Miss Cheryl - Banda Black Rio
Los Conquistadores Chocolates - Johnny Hammond
Music Is My Sanctuary - Gary Bartz
Summer Madness - Kool & The Gang
Funkin' For Jamaica / Fungi Mama - Tom Browne

Soft Head's ROGUE ELEMENT, a 1978 live recording, handily avoids the fuzo traps that befell latter period Soft Machine. This is free electric jazz that ain't weighted down by overcomposition or chopsaholism. Trevor Watts' Amalgam were into similar territory at the time. Just picked up DEEP (1977) and OVER THE RAINBOW (1979) on FMR reissue and both feature some nicely distracting moments of free funk.

Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society - Mandance

Hmm, interesting... where else could you talk about this?

Nope, nothing so overtly in the disco vein. Ra's late 70s output is fairly diverse-- there are solo piano joints and freeform synth freakouts alongside the groove items. Re. the latter, I dropped some suggestions in a recent article for Deep Water.

http://s53.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=28HL211JB8FE231G3M8MB7X41P

Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter never made it to CD, did they?

Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter never made it to CD, did they?
ArtYard did vinyl pressings of both Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter. No legitimate CDs exist yet.

do you dj around the bay?

Can anyone recommend stuff with piano in?

That Sun Ra video on the You Tube thread was insane, in a very good way.

Geir, do you even read? it's right there in the first post, bro

i just spent a coupla hours in the store listening to a bunch of this stuff. i had to listen to "Poo Poo La La". it's fucking hillarious. "let me kiss you on your poo poo la la". like wtf?! who told him that was a good idea for a song?
http://s21.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2JOEKBGNP3WFU32R26V1XC6918

i ended up getting George Duke's "The Aura Will Prevail". a bit fusiony, but the songs with vocals are rad. and there's an MF DOOM sample on here.

There's a spectacular Earland track ("Ahead of Your Time") buried on The Great Pyramid, an otherwise middling-to-poor album. I've never seen it pop up on a compilation of any sort. It's on this mix, in case anyone's interested (most ot it's applicable to this thread, though it's mostly early/mid '70s).

This is the best thread I've read in a week. Ahh..

(1973) John Klemmer - Love Song to Katherine
(1974) Hamilton Bohannon - Thoughts and Wishes
(1974) José Feliciano - Golden Lady
(1977) Earth, Wind & Fire - Runnin'
(1977) George Benson - The Wind and I
(1977) George Benson - The World is a Ghetto
(1977) George Benson - Valdez in the Country
(1978) Eumir Deodato & EWF - Tahiti Hut
(1978) Joe Sample - Rainbow Seeker
(1978) Masayoshi Takanaka - Brasilian Skies
(1978) Roy Ayers - For Real
(1978) Roy Ayers - You Send Me
(1978) Weather Report - River People
(1978) Weather Report - Young and Fine
(1979) Bob James - Blue Lick
(1979) Dexter Wansel - New Beginnings
(1979) Eumir Deodato - Knights of Fantasy
(1979) Eumir Deodato - Lovely Lady
(1979) George Duke - Brazilian Love Affair
(1979) Grover Washington Jr. - Loran's Dance
(1979) Manzel - Midnight Theme
(1979) Masayoshi Takanaka - Radio Rio
(1979) Richie Cole - New York Afternoon
(1979) The Crusaders & Randy Crawford - Street Life
(1980) Eumir Deodato - Night Cruiser
(1980) Hubert Laws - Family
(1980) Masayoshi Takanaka - Finger Dancin'
(1980) Roy Ayers
(1981) Bernard Wright - 'nard
(1981) Masayoshi Takanaka - Rainbow Paradise
(1981) Roy Ayers - Destination Motherland
(1983) Nick Straker Band - Airwaves

...was sampled and turned into a Disco House song ala Daft Punk:

(1997) Sex-O-Sonique - I Thought It Was You

Okay, these two other things are more like the jazz-R&B to PW2's R&B-jazz, the interface viewed from the opposite direction (with some exceptions): At Frog Island, Rec Park 22 (aka Hot Flash/Shoulderpad Soul Vols 1 and 2).

Surprisingly to interweb friends, I'm just a loud mouthed drunk IRL.

TERRIBLE! what's with that stupid "shut up, white bitch" sample throughout it?

Must be a version I haven't heard. The version I know of is pretty much just loops form the HH song sped up with heavy 90's style 909 house drums over it. Not much more really.

Much love for Mtume's contributions to this era of Rollins. Both "Newkleus" and "Sais" from Horn Culture are essential cuts.

Further suggestions for Jaxon's original ask could be Norman Connors' Saturday Night Special or You Are My Starship, Carlos Garnett's Cosmos Nucleus or New Love or Azar Lawrence's People Moving. All of these arrived 76-78 and triggered some of those shifts from spiritual jazz to smoother, r&b-inflected jazz.

never placed Lenny White of Twennynine "Peanut Butter" fame w/miles' "bitches brew" & return to forever.

also in Twennynine was Don Blackman who had jazz roots playing in Charles McPherson's groups.

Bernard Wright also played in Lenny White's groups, as well as with Tom Browne (another jazz-funk/pop crossover star with "Funkin For Jamaica")

and Billy Cobham's album "A Funky Side of Sings" is total disco funk.

Just picked up this gem for a couple bucks:

http://www.earthwaverecords.com/Pictures/AlbumImg/H/A0072777.jpg

It is very much perfect for this thread and for my ears. Featuring the lovely Jeanie Tracy on vocals. It's probably best know for "You're Gonna Lose Me" but it's nice throughout.

Bobbi Humphrey, especially "Blacks and Blues" ... serious loft shit. I could listen to "Harlem River Drive" for days.

Does anyone here know more about Jamaaladeen Tacuma? By sheer chance I've managed to get gold of two of his early eighties albums, Show Stopper and Renaissance Man, which both offer a great synthesis of electric funk and free-oriented jazz. (Apparently Ornette Coleman, with whom Tacuma played back then, was doing something similar around the time, but I'm not too familiar with him.) His albums are very hard to find though, and I was wondering if any of the others are even worth bothering.

Oh yeah, I finally bough Sunlight because of this thread, and it is indeed a fun record, though not as good as Herbie's full-blown electro stuff from the eighties (especially Perfect Machine, which is near brilliant).

i just picked up Bob James' "12" from 84 because of the song on Cosmo Galactic Prism Mixed By Prins Thomas. the song is killer and there's one more on the album just as good.

i've been meaning to pick up a Jamaaladeen Tacuma album. he does a cover of Creator has a Master Plan that i heard once that's pretty cool

I've heard him do some free-funkish stuff with Calvin Weston, on some James Carter and Derek Bailey records, I think.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre600/e691/e69115te8nn.jpg

???? good?

i grabbed this record by Hummingbird called 'we can't go on meeting like this' for 6 bucks today, its not really 'jazz goes disco' but its definitely got that fusion sound, real interesting

It's okay, especially the first and the last song. It has too many non-vocoder vocals by Herbie though, I wish he'd left his real voice out of it. He can sing perfectly fine, but his voice is really bland. Other than that it's a nice piece of smooth early-eighties dance-pop (no electro or hip-hop influences there yet), quite similar to Quincy Jones's The Dude, which was released around the same time with many of the same musicians (including Herbie). The last song is something different though, it's a seven-minute vocoder ballad sung by Herbie and Patrice Rushen with a Nietzschean theme ("only the strong will survive"), and it ends with a killer piano solo that sounds more like early-seventies than early-eighties Herbie. I'm not sure if it's even a good song, but it's worth a listen.

Still, I think this is the worst eighties Herbie album I've heard (though I haven't even dared to listen to Monster), both Mr. Hands and the three electro albums are much better.

u dig 'feet dont fail me'?

I've only heard one song from it, which sounded great. Should I get the whole album?

havent heard it either, amg hates it, not that this means anything per se

Yeah, AMG definitely can't be trusted on this kinda stuff. Too much of a "serious" jazz head perspective. They pretty much hate all of Freddie Hubbard from this era too and I love that stuff. As for Lite Me Up, ehhh I can't really recommend it as something you need to pick up. It's way cheesy in a way that is hard for me to stomach. And I love much of this stuff, cheese and all. "Gettin' to the Good Part" is the definite highlight. You've probably heard it, so buy it for that if anything. Nothing else on it really does much of anything for me.

copped this off another board:

"Heatwave" featured Cleethorpe's most famous son, keys man Rod Temperton, who wrote some of the big hits on Michael Jackson's better efforts, hence the similar construction of the songs. In fact, there is a mint Temperton Tribute mix here :

http://www.waxdj.com/download.php?band_id=825&song_id=14672&mode=song_hifi

Quincy Jones / Turn The Action On / A&M Records
Heatwave / Boogie Nights / GTO
Heatwave / Put The Word Out / GTO
Brother Johnson / Stomp / A&M Records
Heatwave / Jitterbuggin’ / GTO
Herbie Hancock / The Bomb / CBS
Manhattan Transfer / Spice Of Life / Atlantic Records
Michael Jackson / Off The Wall / Epic
Quincy Jones / Razzamatazz / A&M Records
George Benson / Love X Love / Warner Bros. Records
George Benson / Give Me The Night / Warner Bros. Records
Heatwave / Eyballin’ / GTO
Heatwave / The Groove Line / GTO
James Ingram with Michael McDonalds / Yah Mo B There / Qwest Records
Rufus & Chaka Khan / Masterjam / Ariola
Brother Johnson / Light Up The Night / A&M Records
Patti Austin / Do You Love Me / Qwest Records
Bob Jones / Sign Of The Times /
Quincy Jones / The Dude / A&M Records
Heatwave / Ain’t No Half Steppin’ / GTO
Heatwave / Send Out For Sunshine / GTO
Rufus & Chaka Khan / Live In Me / Ariola
Zhane / Vibe / Motown (samples Love X Love)
Michael McDonald / Sweet Freedom / MCA Records Ltd.
Heatwave / Lettin’ It Loose / Epic
Patti Austin / The Genie / Qwest Records
Michael Jackson / Thriller / Epic
Donna Summer / Love Is In Control / WEA International Inc.
Herbie Hancock / Lite Me Up / CBS
Michael Jackson / Rock With You / Epic
Interview with Rod Temperton / Epic

cldn't see anyone linking to this site so far on this thread, some profitable areas for future study:

http://www.behearer.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

wow. awesome!

looks like 1976 got spammed. weird.

Could swear we talked about those Herbie albums and Temperton in (an)other thread(s).

The Temperton mix looks real solid but it's missing some personal faves: Patti Austin's "Love Me to Death," MJ's "Baby Be Mine," Heatwave's "Too Hot to Handle." Avoiding the Carpenters was pretty wise -- those songs should've gone to someone like Anita Baker. (There's an '80s Carpenters album assisted by a crop of Quincy Jones session/late CTI people, like Bob James, Louis Johnson, Airto, Ralph MacDonald, Siedah Garrett, one of the Breckers, Greg Phillinganes, etc. It is not all that hot.)

Yeah, AMG definitely can't be trusted on this kinda stuff. Too much of a "serious" jazz head perspective. They pretty much hate all of Freddie Hubbard from this era too and I love that stuff.

If you read some of the reviews of relatively, uh, straighter jazz, you'll know which names to trust on the later albums. If certain people use specific words or phrases ("commercial," "simple," "dated," "blatant," "flagrant," "not creative," "not really jazz," "can be skipped by serious jazz fans"), to describe a '70s/early '80s album, you'll know it was actually made just for you. (Like I said, it is slowly being rectified. Many of those reviews were written 12+ years ago, when covering as much ground as possible was a higher priority than being fair.)

That Temperton mix is sweet -- thanks for putting up the link. Have never really heard those late 70s/early 80s Quincy Jones records. Something to look for the next time I'm crate-digging ...

Could swear we talked about those Herbie albums and Temperton in (an)other thread(s).

Here, I think:

Herbie Hancock

I think most of AMG's Herbie reviews are fine, it's not like they diss him for abandoning "real" jazz, most of his good fusion albums still get good reviews. For example, I think they gave Mr. Hands and Perfect Machine four stars and Lite Me Up two, which sounds about right.

And here:

Quincy Jones - Search & Destroy

I happened to find Lite Me Up and The Dude almost the same time from the used records bin, so it was fun to notice the connections.

yeah but they don't really tell you much about those albums from a fusion/disco/dance standpoint. i'd rather have the folks who review, i dunno, the bumblebee unlimited album* or something review disco herbie.

*have not actually checked amg review of this to verify this is what i actually want

Expansions - Lonnie Liston Smith

cant believe i didnt hear this til now ... incredible

another good find ... Norman Connors' "Captain Connors" off This Is Your Life A+

I just picked up the album after "Expansions" called "Reflections of a Golden Dream." I'd recommend it nearly as highly as "Expansions." My two-year-old calls it "butterfwy song" because of the cover

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41C4848ZD4L._SS500_.jpg

but that's probably a fairly accurate description (in a good way).

you should hear the Willie Bobo-goes-disco album Hell of an Act To Follow

-- Gear! (Ill Cajun Gunsmith) (Gear!), Tuesday, July 12, 2005 6:04 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Link

^^^^this

guys, maynard ferguson's "primal scream" album from 1976 is DOPE. check this track:

'pagliacci'

nice!

i love that track.

as much as i think edits are kinda retarded (especially when they're just working w/an already dancey disco track), i've been wanting to make some tracks (this one would be a good canidate) into edits.

Candido's 'Dancing and Prancin' is an excellent mini- LP that works really well within the jazz-disco realm. Is the "Thousand Finger Man" track that's on this LP from 1979 the same as the earlier one he released in 69 ? I wouldn't think so. I have been searching out tracks like these after purchasing Johnny Hammond's Gears. 'Los Conquistadores Chocolates' man what a great tune!

Candido's 'Dancing and Prancin': bought this in ny 2 weeks ago.

"as much as i think edits are kinda retarded (especially when they're just working w/an already dancey disco track), i've been wanting to make some tracks (this one would be a good canidate) into edits.

-- jaxon"

pagliacci has already been edited by mike clark, if you can find the wax it is worth purchasing:

http://www.discogs.com/release/322857

i recently got "the fly" on 12" by maynard furgueson, it is the bomb funnky disco jazz jam.

Another stone Lonnie Liston Smith classic: "Space Princess" (from Exotic Mysteries). Further out on the disco tip than "Expansions", and as great as the title implies.

On one of those Best of Soul Train shows a couple of weeks ago, the serious dancers were throwing down to Ramsey Lewis' "What's the Name of This Funk(Spiderman)" like it was a known club hit. That's a squiggly mother, too.

Link to Space Princess audio via Aol Video but no vid ? Who cares, this shit is banging. Apparently a Mancuso classic.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/lonnie-liston-smith-space-princess-1978/1724716287

Damn that break in the middle is dope. I'll be on the hunt for this one now. thanks briania :)

Yeah, it's a seven-minute groove that just isn't long enough.

i have the 12" if you have something nice to trade, it's not one of my LLS jams.

Are you some kinda vinyl god? Are you the aforementioned Jaxon?

Records like that -- I scoop 'em up when I find 'em, but to actually start COLLECTING them would be such a leap down the rabbit hole... Intriguing to know that a 12" exists, though.

am i a vinyl god? hah

"am i a vinyl god? hah

-- jaxon"

jaxon, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!

Nice shootin' Tex.

what about the twinkie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_ET2owuDY

what do u guys think of this? i copped just cause i found it cheap and on store headphones it sounded good, not sure what i think about actually playing it. the youtube makes it sound a little more muddled in the mix than it actually is

i recently got "the fly" on 12" by maynard furgueson, it is the bomb funnky disco jazz jam.

-- pipecock, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 9:55 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

ha for a second i thought u meant the rocky theme :D
he does a disco vers of that too tho

Lovin' that one deej.

herbie hancock sunlight MAD CLASSY

http://www.recordmania.net/media/covers/FJN54098.jpg
INCREDIBLE record. hes from chicago (in las vegas now :-/) but this record is some perfect late 70s jazz fusion/disco shit. "love desire" is a banger for real

pretty fucking sick. Lionel Hampton w/drum machine and FAT synth bass
http://dreamchimney.com/tracks/20836

corny + awesome

i think that's the whole premise of this thread.

i honestly can't tell corny from not corny anymore with all the shit i listen to

I don't ever recall hearing a drum machine with regular non-sampled straight-up vibes. Or even sampled, for that matter! Dude was born in 1908 for ffs, wtf, etc

Vibramatic made a big comeback a few years back thanks to the Joakim remix:

http://www.discogs.com/release/207922

I think the original fell in that vein of Herbie Hancock embracing Celluloid records after they discovered Kool Lady Blue's night at the Roxy.

Paul Hardcastle was the inevitable end of that vein (specifically, Jazzmasters). Or further, Dave A. Stewart & Candy Dulfer - Lily was Here in 1989. Ugh.

This thread alone justifies ilm

BTW, a couple Jose Feliciano songs fit the bill of Summery, Jazzy R&B. type thing for me lately (Golden Lady, Wild One, etc)

Also, did I mention Steve Parks' Movin' in the Right Direction yet? Too lazy to ctrl-f

Miles Davis' We Want Miles (1982) is one of my favorite 80s jazz albums

it's definitely not pop/disco. discogs lists it as fusion, which i guess it is with the electric guitar, but because it's all live it feels so much more organic and definitely not overproduced

plus Jean Pierre is fucking amazing

http://www.wiels.nl/blog/images/Gabor_Szabo_-_Night_Flight_front_sm.jpg

this is whats up. cover of bunny sigler's 'keep smiling' is so beautiful it makes me want to get back w my ex

some records should have a disclaimer warning you about things like that

wow. it really is great. i will be on the hunt for. have def seen it around.

drum fills on concorde are hot

thats a great fucking cover too

I finally got Herbie's Feets Don't Fail Me Now, and it's quite good. Mostly it's the sort of synth-laden vocoder disco you'd expect from Herbie of this era, faster and more poppy than Sunlight but less smooth and polished than Lite Me Up, which makes for a nice mid-ground. I'd say it's one of his better dance albums, definitely worth more than the one star AMG gives it. "Tell Everybdoy" has a terrific groove, everyone should check out at least that tune if not the whole album.

"Tell Everybody" also has some pretty over-the-top echoed synth drums that seem to be foreshadowing the 80s drum sound.

i read that AMG review the other day, fucking dick review.

"Herbie falls hook, line and sinker for the disco fad and submerges his personality underneath the plastic vocals and four-on-the-floor disco beat... This time, even the purists were right; this is of no interest to jazz listeners and it isn't even good disco. "

http://i3.ebayimg.com/03/c/01/a2/c7/cb_8.JPG

(that's "november 1981")

I just found Ramsey Lewis's cover of Stevie's Spring High. Now wondering about Ramsey's Love Notes album:

http://www.discogs.com/release/1021440

Anyone recommend?

Also,

i read that AMG review the other day, fucking dick review.

The original text was worse, if you can believe it. "Idiot" was in there somewhere.

I just found Ramsey Lewis's cover of Stevie's Spring High. Now wondering about Ramsey's Love Notes album:

http://www.discogs.com/release/1021440

Anyone recommend?

It's OK, a bit dry.

Really into these lately: The songs w/ vocals on Ronnie Laws' Flame, Art Farmer's "Crawl Space," Joe Farrell's "Night Dancing" (has a kinda Material-like synth-driven chunk to it).

That Gabor Szabo album cover is awesome. Looks like a still from a film in this series

Went on a spree of getting Yukihiro Takahashi albums today.

His '77 debut (Saravah!) fills this bill PERFECTLY.

weird, i heard my first kukihiro takahashi song today on http://balearicblog.blogspot.com/

or whatever the hell is name is

haha, i posted that video on that jap electronic thread just now

that 1981 album is like, 808 new wave, whereas the 77 album is closer to CTI meets Dr. Buzzard

I discovered his solo work via the Japanese City Pop lastfm group, which is ironic considering how much YMO and Sakamoto I already own.

Elastic Dummy is the best example, but La Rosa is the best available on youtube:

and along these lines, here's "solid slider" by Tatsuro Yamashita. my friend owns the record. think it trades hands for like $50

ok, that is nice

oh, this is why it's so expensive i guess http://72records.com/ebay-aud/tatsurospacy.mp3

I think this might qualify:

Minako Yoshida - Town

And another from her:

Minako Yoshida - Let's Do It

just picked up 'turn this mutha out' by idris muhammad, spinning it right now. pretty sick album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAijAjixYX8&feature=related

and it's got 'could heaven ever be like this'!! still need a copy of this album/single

It's all about the A-side on this one for me. Three excellent tracks.

Moodymann sampled the title track for his track "Amerika", one of my Moodymann favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOdaUEFnDG4

Idris Muhammad is the shit! I haven't that particular album, but Black Rhythm Revolution and Peache & Rhythm (available as a two-fer-one CD) have some dope soulful/spiritual jazz grooves, and House of the Rising Sun is one of the best disco/funk jazz albums ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRL54DjLJ2g

Maybe the best version of this oldie.

Idris Muhammad - Sudan

What a fucking groove!

Idris Muhammad - Rhythm

Once this song kicks in it never stops.

By the way, a while ago I did a mixtape with a lot of disco jazz (including Idris Muhammad), you can listen to it here:

http://8tracks.com/nexinexim/all-aboard-the-groove-machine

Has Turn This Mutha Out ever been reissued? I've never seen it in the local record stores.

been digging bob james a lot lately. picked up "3" on vinyl recently and i gotta say, "westchester lady" is one sick, sick track. i think i'm going to have to invest in some more of his CTI albums.

ya. westchester (the neighborhood in la i grew up in) lady and Storm King fucking kill it

i just remembered where i'd heard that track sampled before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkzVBtUA4rU

The Michael Jackson fervor has caused me to seek out Greg Phillinganes's solo work.

His 1981 album fits the bill here, especially "Girl Talk":

http://img.snowrecords.com/lp/20342.jpg

i love phillinganes. he covered (and got eric clapton to cover) a YMO song. how fucking rad is that?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQTWNPL2PJQ

and had donald fagen to write a song for him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFBS9H_tFLo

You are still a sick sick man jaxon. Although i too have a soft spot for that glossy hitech 80's production style.

KEYTAR!

Just discovered Kimiko Kasai & Herbie Hancock's 1979 collab:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_hjzm9ehso

i mentioned that song on this thread
folk, jazzy, slightly funky, sorta smoothed out Singer Songwriter stuff (sort of a post Steely Dan thread)

you've heard the original, ya? (o, i mentioned it in the original post of this thread)

I got a couple of FUNKY fusion records off emusic by The Headhunters that I never could find on CD that are pretty great. There are some vocals on a few tracks, but it is all still pretty intense funk. If you like Herbie's 70s stuff, they are well worth searching out.

Straight from the Gate
Survival of the Fittest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS0SKQnpddM

http://ileoxumare.blogspot.com/

urszula's dope. i love husband/wife jazz combos. her and Urbaniak, abbey & max, sonny & linda, Jean & Doug Carn, airto & flora. annette peacock, paul bley, gary peacock and who ever they're fucking. just uploaded a flora purim song today. she and urszula are totally on the same vibe.

http://www.robotsinheat.com/trax/Sarara.mp3

I've been listening to Larry Carlton's s/t album from 1978. It's kind of incredibly odd: beautiful Gibson ES-335 soloing over some basically straight-up disco arrangements with a couple of yacht-rock-ish vocal tunes thrown in there!

jazz + disco :

http://ireallylovemusic.co.uk/blog/wp-content/lalo.jpg

this makes me wanna sit on the beach w/a fruity cocktail in my hand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMldvm8pYYI

^ lalo schifrin produced/written etc. my 12" is called 'dream machine' not 'undercurrents'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVKAt8hAWBY&feature=share

amazing

ha, total jaxon jam

sweeeeeet

That came out two years before Miles Davis's Tutu. Chuck Mangione, cyber-jazz-funk pioneer!

before future shock too

Enjoyed that.

DAZZ DAZZ, DISCO JAZZ: It's the time of the season again, so revisiting this thread.

George Benson's In Flight!

Also, just got Ramsey Lewis's Sun Goddess, and getting Love Notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk3k7KYRE1A

Sun Goddess is so great! It sounds more like an Earth, Wind & Fire album with Ramsey Lewis as a guest than the other way around, but that's just a good thing. Not sure if it fits this thread though, as it's firmly in the early 70s jazz-funk camp. Anyway, besides the title tune, I particularly love the weird-ass goblin synth funk om "Tambura".

I would say Spring High from Love Notes does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rAFUTaCa3k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzMuz5gK4yY

Really like this, I will buy this straight away if you can vouch for the rest of the album being as good as this (or at least close)?

this is the best music for january

http://www.vinylist-records.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/e/serpico-ost-soundtrack.jpg

I have been devouring this thread. So many favorites discussed, and definitely got put on to some new ones. Thought I'd offer up a recent discovery; the arrangements are Bob James. Some serious grooves amidst the standard backing fare. It's on Paramount, but it fits with the CTI catalogue.

Amazing thread. So much of this is right up my alley.

Idris Muhammad is fantastic. Had never heard of him before reading this thread.

Does anyone here have any thoughts on Azymuth?

The Azymuth album with the spade on the cover is pretty dope. "Mañana" especially.
And of course, "jazz carnival" is classic.

I got a 4CD box of albums by Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, all released between 1979 and 1984 and now reissued on ECM. There is some seriously weird shit on here, including a version of "Monk's Mood" played with a truly horrifying '80s synth sound.

Nice, I love most of that era of DeJohnette. Are there any extra tracks on there? New notes?

I don't have a physical copy, only downloads. There may be new notes, but there are no new tracks. One of the big selling points is that one of the albums - Album Album, from 1981 - has never been on CD before.

Actually that's not true- I think maybe Album Album was never released on CD in the States, but I have a copy, and it's here:

http://www.amazon.com/Album-Jack-Dejohnette/dp/B00000DTF5/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1358531769&sr=8-31&keywords=dejohnette+special+edition

You're right - Inflation Blues is the one that's never been on CD before.

Ah right. And I do want Inflation Blues, so I'll probably pick up the box, despite having purchased 3 of the discs in the last few months. Argh.

i feel like donald byrd's recent passing has made me want to go and scoop up as much of this shit as i can

Always looking for a good reason to revive this thread. Found this today, features include George Duke, Marcos Valle, Flora Purim (of course), Joe Farrell and many of the CTI usual suspects, although it's a Warner release. Perfect for the first summery night in NYC.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6m4qBoeu-XM/TMKXMURgnmI/AAAAAAAAC-Q/vfpn5fxKzzo/s400/Airto_TouchingYouTouchingMe.jpg

I love "toque de cuica" on that.

I am really close to really digging the new Rudresh Mahanthappa, but I can't quite get into the way it sounds -- it has that shiny metallic 90s jazz sound that I thought had mostly died out. I hate the way the drums are recorded to sound more like rock drums.

oh durr, wrong jazz thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18Ff1Zib66U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt7Ltf-wjbY

Pharoah Sanders on the bandwagon;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiNJzmtAfwg

I wanted to post his cover of "Got To Give It Up" off the same album but it's not on YouTube.

search: ramsey lewis' ramsey from 1979. a1 and b1 are disco. the rest is more on the jazz-funk side. production is excellent.

lol, the rest of the second side is "don't cry for me argentina"

So many of these records are completely forgotten. I guess jazz disco just doesn't fit well into the jazz mythology that prevailed.

i was wondering that recently - to what extent was this stuff considered 'jazz' at the time? especially when you get into the '80s. now i suppose the standard image of 'jazz' without any hyphens is something that stops really moving some time in the mid-60s, but did the critics and the public think of the pop and disco moves (as well as the funk etc moves before it) as more or less the same lineage, in the way that e.g. rock was allowed to be completely different over a span of decades but still be part of a tradition?

I would say no. There is the stodgier strain of jazz criticism that just acts like jazz died when Bitches Brew came out (or earlier), and there's a more open strain that accepts fusion and/or out and free stuff. But I don't think there's much critical love for the music this thread discusses.

I wrote a piece for Burning Ambulance today about George Duke's mid '70s albums for the MPS label, which overlapped with his time in Frank Zappa's band (a lot of Zappa sidemen show up, including FZ himself on one album, playing pseudonymous guitar, and there are compositional influences audible as well).

Nice, any chance you could recommend some similar stuff to that mid 70's George Duke sound? I've gotten really into the Brecker Brothers and Frank Zappa lately, but I can't seem to find much else.

i don't know, but i do want to recommend a pretty unknown george duke recording: a three-song studio demo from late 1972 (typically circulating, as bootlegs do, with the erroneous date of "1974 demo"). the songs are "for love (i come your friend)", and two instrumentals, "psychosomatic dung" and an instrumental take on "uncle remus". all three songs are superb (zappa plays guitar on all of them, but duke is clearly the leader here).

I will for sure check that out!

Does anybody know anything about Lenny White's late 70s/early 80s band Twennynine? There's a box out that compiles two of White's ultra-fusiony 70s albums and all three Twennynine albums, and I'm wondering whether to go for it. The band had two female vocalists, so I'm a little concerned that it's gonna be some corny, ultra-slick wannabe-Chic stuff.

i've been pretty obsessed with this brazilian jazz-funk album from 1979 all summer

antonio adolfo - viralata
https://img.discogs.com/Y3haOPvkGKKbLACf0jgmQBjbu7o=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-1928506-1324126080.jpeg.jpg

found out about it due to it being reissued (link) and apparently the opening track was a dancefloor classic (last song ever played at Plastic People) but, i've kind of burnt out on it. i checked out one of adolfo's other albums from the same era (tropical infinito) but it didn't quite hit the spot. Viralata has just incredible fucking melodies, and perfect playing.

have any of you heard it? can anyone recommend some other classics from that era? tia

brazillian jazz-funk = i'm in, thanx 4 sharing

don't know if it's similar but search: Deodato - Night Cruiser, "Whistle Bump"

bump

whistle bump is nice. bit more disco than the Adolfo, but i'm holding onto it for sure. thx brims

so dope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMP6AMS5e2Q

hell yes, love that track

Maynard Ferguson- The Fly
Brian Bennett Voyage album

Aquarian Dream-You're a Star

Last year I wrote a three-part series about Sonny Rollins' 1970s albums - lots of funk, even some disco.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Oh yes! Still need to check out several of those, but my gateway back in the day was Nucleus, successfully balancing trans-genre/subgenre accessibility and integrity; Don't Stop The Carnival was fun, although Tony Williams didn't contribute as much as expected (from prodigious teen years on, he set the bar very high); There Will Be Another You, 1965 live set released in '78, was revelatory and relevant, re ongoing saga of well-established stylist implicitly responding to the hairy call of free jazz, challenging self and audience in an engrossing, strenuous, exemplary way, lyrical and hard-edged. (He also challenged its release, but unperson says it very eventually re-appeared as part of a double CD.)

Otherwise, though still controversial among his fans, I liked Ornette w Prime Time, also James White and the Blacks (even got a James Chance box, Irresistible Impulse, which is a bit much, but worth checking out if you find it cheap). Also the Lounge Lizards, young Marc Ribot (briefly a Lizard), and a lot of stuff on the Gramavision label https://www.discogs.com/label/12057-Gramavision

re no wave etc, incl. w discoid dancestand appeal, check a bunch of those ZE Records reissues from several years back, dunno what might still be in catalog, but at least the cut-uot bins if act quickly):
https://www.discogs.com/label/7785-ZE-Records

I've just started checking out the early, early Lounge Lizards material - all I'd ever heard was the live-in-Tokyo album, but the first recordings with Arto Lindsay, when they're reducing Thelonious Monk compositions to shards, are pretty fascinating.

There should be some good boots of early stuff posted here and there. Meanwhile, the best set I've heard is the following (legit) deposit, as nailed by xgau:
Live 79-81 [ROIR, 1985]
Before they were a mediocre jazz group or a hot fusion band they were a mordant postpunk concept, the avant-Raybeats. More than their antiseptic Editions EG album, this captures their raw sleaze, not to mention John Lurie's reptillian embouchure and (on three cuts) Arto Lindsay's cool-defying guitar. (Then he gives it a B+, but always go by the descriptons, if you go by any of his stuff.)
(He liked some of their later stuff too, but yeah this was the shit.)

Speaking of Ornette and Prime Time, the discoid peak (that I know of) is Of Human Feelings: early digital, but the CD (also early, but mine might be remastered) sounds good to me.

I interviewed Jamaaladeen Tacuma last year and we talked about In All Languages, and his tenure in Prime Time, quite a bit. You can hear it here, if you want.

I do, thanks!

search: ramsey lewis' ramsey from 1979. a1 and b1 are disco. the rest is more on the jazz-funk side. production is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1UVeNg-2YU

Can't wait to get this on vinyl and slow it down the necessary 10 to 15 BPM.

such a great thread

fascinating era that still feels refreshingly unsettled wrt any standard narrative about jazz, pop, rock, R&B, etc

there's been some reassessment in light of various revivals but a lot of this stuff still seems barely acknowledged esp by jazz types

Donald Byrd would have turned 88 yesterday. I wrote a guide to his stuff which goes from the 50s to the 70s.

ty that is great! I found the sonny rollins one really helpful before

cracking article.
out of all my jazz era collection, other than The Axe (who was not totally jazz, but hey), Byrd is the main man i come back to the most.
such variety and excellence.

Yes, thanks for the Byrding guide; I've only heard "Christo Redentor" and a few other tracks occasionally played on my local jazz station (also remember the Blackbyrds a little bit).
Several thread-relevant albums here: https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2020/the-best-reissues-of-2020 (the Fela prob has considerable jazz appeal too, I suspect). And they're all linked to bandcamp pages: Billy Brooks, Pharoah Sanders, self-funded Shirley Scott, South Africa's Heshoo Beshoo Group, advance bits of which I was totally buzzed by over on Rolling Reissues---the only one I hadn't heard or heard of was Brooks:

Windows Of The Mind Billy Brooks
BUY
GO TO ALBUM
Merch for this release:
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)

Billy Brooks established himself as a sought after session musician in the 1950’s, rubbing shoulders with Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, and Cal Tjader. Charles was clearly impressed by the funky trumpeter; in 1974, he signed Brooks to his sub-label Crossover Records, releasing the upstart’s Windows of the Mind LP the same year. Closing song “Forty Days”—famously sampled by A Tribe Called Quest on their enduring classic “Luck of Lucien”—is the album’s best-known track by a wide margin, but Brooks’ legacy runs much deeper than passing references: “Rockin Julius” is a lively flash of fashionable 1970’s funk, while “Jagged Edge” harks back to a more 1950’s film noir style. The album promises glimpses into the various windows of Billy Brooks’ mind. Turns out, they’re all pretty chill, not to mention genius. Album's page adds info that it's co-produced by Charles and featuring such heavy players as Herman Riley, Calvin Keys and Larry Gales. Will check.

I have a friend who is definitely not a music nerd, but got obsessed with Idris Muhammed's 'Could Heaven Ever Be Like This' as part of his frequent midlife fungi adventures. He wanted more and had no idea where to go, so I made him a big playlist and referencing this thread was very helpful, shouts out.

Some relevant stuff on this intriguing, recently revived thread, which I didn't recall having seen before: Miroslav Vitous -- Magical Shepard

Good call, definitely adding New York City on there. And definitely sampling the break on Aim Your Eye. ;)

Cool! Also, come to think of it, way back when Bobby Previte reappeared with Coalition of the Willing(2007) and his group of the same name, I was unexpectedly stimulated to connect with several 70s-80s intersections, trying to balance for new cadets and old hands----archived here:
https://papercomet.blogspot.com/2018/06/

& note link from that to Previte's bandcamp, where he's posted tons ov amazers.

Some of the albums I mention are from a bit later than 70s-80s, but in very much the same spirit.