Chick Corea Killin' It

"Spiritual" Music pt. 1

Part 2

Yatha Sidhra - Meditation Mass (1972)























Spiritual Blessing

Pharoah Sanders - Elevation (1973)



















Spark from the Infinite (Part 2)

Terry Riley - No Man's Land (1985)
























Gol-e Gandom

Lloyd Miller - Oriental Jazz (1965)


"Spiritual" is used here in the loosest sense. Although, for many people spiritual music simply means recording flutes, tablas, sarods and dangling bells. I don't see how those instruments are in anyway spiritual, if we mean spiritual beyond the fashionable Westernized fast-food version of spiritual, as meaning Oriental. But for this post, that's exactly what I aim for.

Ikenga Superstars of Africa - Greedy Man

Greedy Man

Led by Vincent Okoroego, the Ikengas were a fairly popular "highlife guitar" group from Nigeria. Like many African groups in the 70s and 80s, they created upbeat, bouncy music to enliven the spirits of attracted customers at market stalls throughout Nigeria - Africa's form of market commercialism. Broken and "pidgin" English sharply cut into the groove and the soft, smooth Congolian guitar rift sounds like the source of Paul Simon's imperialistic replication of African music during the 80s.

MPB pt. 1

Nega





















Farinha Do Desprezo
























Toc

Letta Mbulu - Mahlalela & Melodi

Mahlalela
Melodi

From her 1970 release, "Letta"
White people, cleanse yourselves in the waters of primordial neck-crackin music

Pharoah Sanders - Pharoah

Harvest Time

Pharoah Sanders 1977 album released on the obscure label, India Navigation is by far his rarest and perhaps most beautiful album. "Harvest Time" fills up the first side of the record and contains some of Sanders most lyrical and forward tenor sax playing. Bathing in the atmosphere of lush chords from Tisziji Munoz's echoing electric guitar, Pharoah arises from the waters and glides on top of Munoz's motifs, caressing the majestic soundspace with lovely interpentrating soliloquies that bounce back and forth with bassist Steve Neil (sounding like Dave Holland) to then travel off into the cosmos to make love with some funky godhead residing inbetween Sirius and Torgious.

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - The Feedback & Seguita

The Feedback

Seguita

Gruppo Di Improvvisazione was Ennio Morricone's jazz/avant-garde/classical group throughout the 60s and early 70s. The group's style changed in the early 70s from Stockhausen-esque possessive soundscapes to dry drum breaks with screaching trumpets and guitars. "The feed-back" is considered highly as an Italian avant-garde classic. 'The feedback' showcases Ennio Morricone sounding off a flat trumpet that fits perfectly with the cold and cacophonous intermingling of instruments. "Seguita" is from 'Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura' (Cold Eyes of Fear) a dramatic action movie Morricone soundtracked in 1971. The song spawns images of tall, dark men in black suits running through damp streets and narrow alleys. I haven't seen the movie so perhaps my mental image isn't too far from Morricone's theatrical intention.