Joe and I caught up last weekend to go through his mix selections and chat about how life was feeling post-exams.
His mix is a spiritual workout. Progressive jazz with rhythms and melodies that break away from the norm. Personal journeys and political statements. This one is for the true music heads out there!
In his own words:
I was lucky to grow up in a house where you can almost always hear music when you walk in the front door, so from quite a young age I was taking in a lot of the stuff my Dad would play. He's always been a big fan of jazz and it was by exploring his CD collection that I learnt about it. I’d spend hours burning all these discs onto my iPod and listened to a few new albums every time I went out to do my paper rounds on the weekend. That started when I was about 11. It was maybe a strange way to learn about music, and there were some surprises (I remember putting on Coltrane’s ‘Ascension’ one morning, having no idea what I’d done), but I fell totally in love with jazz that way.
Over the years my taste has expanded and for the past few years I’ve mostly been listening to techno and reggae, but over quarantine Ive spent a lot of time revisiting things I used to listen to with fresh ears. It’s been great and I love it just as much as ever: this mix sort of represents some of my favourite stuff I’ve rediscovered recently. Hopefully it’s enjoyable!
The mix is centred around the ‘Spiritual’ jazz subgenre, which arose out of the general jazz avant-garde in the 60s and 70s. Where it differs from other ‘fusions’ (like Herbie, Byrd and Weather Report’s blending of jazz and funk) is that much of the music centres around a dialogue between jazz and African and Indian musical styles. I wanted to give a little retrospective of some of my favourites from the style, both classics and some lesser known stuff. It’s the jazz subgenre I find myself returning to most frequently…there’s something addictive about those deep bass grooves and shimmering piano lines offset against soaring horns and hand percussion. A lot of the music here comes from a few of the most significant labels putting out this sort of music at the time: BYG Actuel, ESP Disk, Impulse! and Black Jazz. I also included a few contemporary examples of how the spiritual jazz style has lived on, particularly in contemporary London, Melbourne and Chicago jazz scenes.
Tracklist:
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