Genres: Jazz, part 1
Dec 12, 2020
This post marks the start of a series dedicated to exploring genres of music. Today I will post genre-specific library tracks I enjoy. In the future, I want to incorporate reader suggestions into Genres posts. I will post the track along with a shout-out to the reader who suggested it! The next Genres post will be about pop. If you would like to suggest tracks (pop or pop mixed with something else), tweet at me with song titles.
As a sidenote, I have added the Archive page (also up top). This will help readers look through posts from the past or find a specific one.
First track today will be from the Canadian BadBadNotGood, a group popular in the modern jazz scene. III is more controlled, IV is more spontaneous and has more vocals/collaborations. Both a pleasure to listen to. This one below is from III.
Latin jazz is a huge subgenre of jazz. Anticipate a bossa nova Genres post in the future. This album mixes flamenco styles with jazz in a method vaguely reminiscent of Al Di Meola, but more soulful (less technically sound) than Meola.
Jaga Jazzist is a Norwegian jazz band. Their early work evoke feelings of a lounge set in the 80’s or 90’s. Their albums are quite different from each other — so there is a sense of discovery with each one. I’ll have to do some catching up on their latest Pyramid EP (which I found out about while making this post).
Yussef Kamaal was a London-based jazz group. Unfortunately, the two components of this group, Yussef and Kamaal, have since parted ways. This album is always good when you want to jive to some solid drum beats backed by synths.
If you go back far enough in Andrew Bird’s discography, you hit Bowl of Fire. This was a band Andrew Bird led before one performance where many of his band mates were sick causing him to play the set himself. After that he has been a predominately solo act. Bowl of Fire’s (earlier) albums are inspired by Dixieland, pre-war jazz, and swing. They have an irresistible and persistent energy.
This first track first appeared on my old music blog several years ago. Since then, I have become a big fan of Bugge Wesseltoft, a Norwegian pianist and jazz musician. I particularly enjoy his Playing and New Conception of Jazz: Moving albums. The second track is from the Playing album, it has a very magical quality.
