Heard on Impulse!: Ten Impulse Records Releases You Must Own - Page 2

So without further ado, the list.

10) Liberation Music Orchestra, Charlie Haden (1969) - Haden is a virtuoso bassist, but he consistently proves that imagination is more important than skill in jazz. Especially on Liberation Music Orchestra, a big-band, spirit-of-the-sixties protest album that channels world music and the vibe of the rock festivals. The album covers those lefty causes of Vietnam, the civil rights movement, and even Che Guevara. It's contemporary and tangential to the work of Gil Scott-Heron and perhaps Eddie Gale, but Haden's album sounds nothing like either of those two...or, for that matter, anything else.

 9) Space is the Place, Sun Ra (1972) - Perhaps I'm biased because it was my introduction to Sun Ra, but I find Space is the Place to be a logical starting point for almost anyone. If for no other reason, the sheer variety should do the trick: the theatrical, soulful title track, the flat-out swing of "Images," the afro-jazz of "Discipline," the — well, just what it says it is — of "Sea of Sounds," and the weird but funny revisiting of Ra's classic "Rocket Number Nine Takes Off for the Planet Venus." Plus, Sun Ra's headgear on the cover is really cool.

 8) Attica Blues, Archie Shepp (1972) - Four for Trane is the Shepp that most probably would pick, but I find Attica Blues just as good and far more interesting. Shepp does something between suite and collection of tracks with this album — his response to the Attica Prison uprising and the bloodshed that resulted — but also gathers together an unusual big band that's as firmly rooted in funk and Miles-y fusion as it is in avant-garde dissonance and skronk. Surprisingly, the poetic "invocations" that separate some of the tracks are often as riveting as the music itself...and that's a compliment.

 7) East Broadway Run Down, Sonny Rollins (1966) - Oh, this one will trip you up, it will — far from the electrifying runs and mad swing of Saxophone Colossus, it's Sonny on the outskirts of tonality and structure. But while it's not as iconic as, say, his soundtrack to Alfie (also on Impulse!), the (mostly) trio date shows jazz's most relentless — and relentlessly insecure — talent taking one of the biggest risks of his turbulent career and coming out on the other side in triumph. That's always valuable listening.

Article Author: Michael J. West

Michael J. West is a writer, editor, and dilettante jazz critic in Washington, D.C. In addition to BlogCritics, he writes for JazzTimes, Washington City Paper, and AllAboutJazz.com. He occasionally writes at Pop Musicology, too. He's very cute. …

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