Electric Jazz

[James]

A thread devoted to all things Electric Jazz; jazzers plugged in & electric, electro-acoustic jazz .. I'll start with a list of some favorite recordings, off the top of my head ..

Miles Davis, Jack Johnson, We Want Miles
Lifetime, Believe It
Cobham, Spectrum
Head Hunters, Head Hunters, Thrust
Mahavishnu, The Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire, Between Nothingness & Eternity
Weather Report, Tail Spinnin', Black Market, Heavy Weather, Mr. Gone, 8:30, Night Passage
Return to Forever, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
Allan Holdsworth, Atavachron
Tribel Tech, Tribal Tech

more to come ..

[San Antone]

Sonny Sharrock - Ask the Ages
James Blood Ulmer - Odyssey
Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society - Barbeque Dog; Man Dance
Larry Coryell - With the Wide Hive Players
Medeski, Martin & Wood - End of the World
Bill Laswell - Head First Into the Flames
Ornette Coleman & Pat Metheny - Song X
Ornette Coleman - Dancing in Your Head

[escher]

James do you mean jazz rock and fusion or even earlier styles? Electric jazz is a bit ambiguous, after all at least the electric guitar was used already regularly in the forties and musicians as Sun Ra used not only electric guitars but often electric keyboards and electric bass too.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqFrukUA0E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbC__R24t0

[James]

James do you mean jazz rock and fusion or even earlier styles? Electric jazz is a bit ambiguous, after all at least the electric guitar was used already regularly in the forties and musicians as Sun Ra used not only electric guitars but often electric keyboards and electric bass too.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqFrukUA0E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbC__R24t0

Jazz-rock or fusion are stupid journalistic names, often too narrow .. inaccurate. Jazz since it's inception has always been a melting pot of popular trends, styles & various sources. Technology had an increasing role in popular musics like jazz, and was an uncharted area of exploration. So I meant exactly how I wrote it in the opening post,  so it can entail varying degrees of electricity, so yes .. this includes electric guitars, organs etc. or something more embracing, advanced/elaborate.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Electricity is only a theory; it is far from being proven. It is extremely arrogant of man to imagine that he can create electricity!

Anyway, I would add Sun Ra's work on the electric piano (aka "rocksichord", among any number of other colorful names), etc.

Try this!

[king ubu]

Les Paul - 100 years today.

[James]

Just thought of a few others now ..

Chick Corea, Light as a Feather, Friends, Music Magic, Elektric Band, Inside Out
Wayne Shorter, Atlantis, Joy Ryder
Steps Ahead, Steps Ahead
Joe Farrell, Moon Germs
John Scofield, Time on My Hands
Allan Holdsworth, The Sixteen Men of Tain & others
John McLaughlin, Electric Guitarist
Jimmy Smith, Off the Top
Jean-Luc Ponty, Enigmatic Ocean
Don Grolnick, Hearts & Numbers
George Benson, Breezin', In Flight, Livin' Inside Your Love
Brecker Brothers, Straphangin', Detente
Michael Brecker, Cityscape & many others
Wayne Krantz, 2 Drink Minimum
Miles, Bitches Brew

more to come ..

[escher]

a lot of great music in that list.

Wayne Shorter, Atlantis, Joy Ryder

to me his best album of that phase is without a doubt High life. It's one of those albums who received incredibly bad reviews (I remember a famous critic saying that Shorter was doing a sort of Kenny G. smooth jazz). Actually it's an album with a questionable sound and I hate the drums on it, but the pieces are incredible. With Speak no evil is my favorite work of him.

[James]

a lot of great music in that list.

to me his best album of that phase is without a doubt High life. It's one of those albums who received incredibly bad reviews (I remember a famous critic saying that Shorter was doing a sort of Kenny G. smooth jazz). Actually it's an album with a questionable sound and I hate the drums on it, but the pieces are incredible. With Speak no evil is my favorite work of him.

Yea .. critics are often full of it. Atlantis & Joy Rider are landmark recordings. Everything Wayne put out is worth hearing though, even his huge body of work before the mighty Weather Report has some of jazz's finest recordings .. not only was he a player with a voice but he is one of my favorite composers, his harmonic invention in composition is unique and awe-inspiring .. I actually prefer him over Coltrane.  I do have High Life and remember it being very nice, lush .. orchestrated, thoughtful. I'll have to re-visit it real soon. Thanks.