Heard on Impulse!: Ten Impulse Records Releases You Must Own - Page 3

 6) Journey in Satchidananda, Alice Coltrane (1970) - Psychedelic stuff, this is, brought to you by the widow Trane. Alice follows St. John's path into raga drones and timbral experiments (oud, tambura, bells, and Alice's own harp), but almost all tricked out inside of blues structures. The rhythms, on the other hand, are both unprecedented and unparalleled. Not jazz for the new initiate, but heavy stuff for lovers of the Coltrane legacy, psychedelia, and even more obscure music like krautrock.

 5) Blues and the Abstract Truth, Oliver Nelson (1961) - Talk about an all-star lineup! Nelson on tenor and alto; Eric Dolphy on alto and flute; Freddie Hubbard on trumpet; George Barrow on baritone; Bill Evans on piano; Paul Chambers on bass; Roy Haynes on drums — probably the most harmonically advanced ensemble of musicians since the concert at Massey Hall. Graceful and fluent, the album fits its title to a T — blues and angular abstraction, through the lens of elegant modern jazz. Plus it features Nelson's version of his standard "Stolen Moments" - a piece of music made in heaven.

 4) Out of the Cool, Gil Evans (1960) - Impressive though Evans is as a composer, his real genius is as an arranger, and nowhere is that more apparent than on this big-band date. The presence of musicians from several eras and backgrounds only adds colors to Evans' cerebral, yet sweepingly gorgeous charts, which exhibit his uncanny ear for voicings and interplay (not to mention a most interesting use of slap-tonguing).

 3) Love Cry, Albert Ayler (1964) - While his ESP work was Ayler's avant-garde manifesto, Love Cry was living proof that avant-garde jazz was rooted in the great black music of earlier era and a testament to free improvisation as music for the gut, not just the head. Love Cry is as much earthy gospel, R&B, soul, and march as it is free jazz, some of that thanks to the direction of creative drummer Milford Graves but all of it Ayler to the core. Damned essential.

 2) The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Charles Mingus (1963) - My favorite composer in any genre, Mingus at his best is a pillar of everything jazz should be: complex, beautiful, saucy, textured, rich in its own history, and above all, unique. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is a ballet in six movements (and the only album I've ever seen with liner notes by the performer's therapist). It is at the vanguard to be sure, but bluesy and swinging as all hell, with bold experiments in harmony, voicings, and multilayered orchestral colors. As far as subgenre, though, it only fits comfortably into one: "Mingus music."