The Resurrection of Spiritual Jazz: Tracing the Roots and Expanding the Horizons
“Spiritual”, or “astral” jazz caused a debate in music circles from its inception
Spiritual jazz is on the rise. Still, even from the moment it was recognized as a genre it has, and continues to cause, long conflicted debates in music circles. As Udiscovermusic recently pointed out, “lying somewhere on the spectrum between avant-garde jazz and free jazz, astral jazz, (as spiritual jazz is also known)represented one of the most experimental periods in jazz’s history. Emerging from the chaotic upheaval of the 60s, spiritual jazz continued to push the boundaries of the form, incorporating new instrumentation, Eastern influences, and delving into more abstract expressionism.”
Actually, the roots of spiritual jazz come up even before the sixties. More than sixty years since jazz legend Yusef Lateef came up with his iconic album, Other Sounds. On it, Lateef started going beyond something that was considered traditional, or at that time, modern jazz (bop). He did that by incorporating eastern world sounds into his music. That was the sound he then fully incorporated into his widely regarded classic, Eastern Sounds, in 1961. At the time, this seemed like a curious musical experiment that many critics thought would not expand past relative…
