1 Ode to Saint Cecile – Mary Lou Williams
2 The Time of This World Is at Hand – Billy Gault
3 Jean Marie – Sam Jones
4 Aida – Rene McLean
5 Tipe Tizwe – Jim Mc Neely
6 Magwaza – Johnny Dyani
7 De I Comahlee Ah – Jackie McLean & Michael Carvin
8 Miss Priss – Ken McIntyre
9 Dark Warrior – Khan Jamal
10 Naima – Michael Carvin
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V.A.—Spiritual Jazz Volume 11: Steeplechase (Jazzman, UK), CD/LP
Most people associate the term “Spiritual Jazz” with labels such as Strata-East and Black Jazz and early 70’s sessions rooted in an Afrocentric or Asian or Islamic-influenced spirit, often growing out of a community arts collective that extends beyond just music. While Jazzman has issued a lot of that kind of sound in its 11 volumes (so far) of Spiritual Jazz compilations, they’ve also gone back as far as the 1950’s to investigate the roots of that approach to jazz, and they have brought back many exciting but forgotten recordings that sound amazingly fresh to modern ears.
Volume 11 is dedicated to “Esoteric, deep and modal jazz from the Steeplechase label (1974-84)” and presents over 70 minutes of gems from the large (900+ releases!) catalog of the Danish label run by Nils Winther. Steeplechase (still active today, after nearly 50 years) has always given free rein to jazz artists to record what they wanted to record, without worrying about commercial considerations, allowing them to bring to fruition projects they’d been wanting to record and release for years, but there were no takers among established labels, and self-releasing was not as common then as it is today.
In that spirit, we’re offered here a wide variety of lengthy tracks ranging from spiritual piano trio (Mary Lou Williams) to alto saxophonist Jackie McLean (a Steeplechase regular) duetting with the African-influenced percussion of Michael Carvin, also mixing in deep tracks from respected player-composers such as Khan Jamal, Ken McIntyre, Johnny Dyani, and Sam Jones, as well as stunning creations from lesser-known names such as pianists Jim McNeely (a member of Ted Curson’s band, whose track is an adaptation of an Zimbabwean folk melody) and Billy Gault (whose 1974 track is a perfect example of what’s usually considered spiritual jazz, with a vocal by Joe Lee Wilson and a Nation of Islam theme to the lyrics).
While some of Steeplechase’s releases by Dexter Gordon, Paul Bley, Anthony Braxton, Chet Baker, and Duke Jordan attracted attention in North America and were common sights in import racks, the material on this compilation did not, for the most part, and it’s easy to see how fine performances can get buried in a catalog of 900+ albums! As is usual for Jazzman, this is very well programmed and annotated, with amazing sound, and begs to be played on “repeat”—-looking forward to Volume 12!
BILL SHUTE, originally published in Ugly Things magazine in 2019
2024 update: This fine series is already up to Volume 15 as of this writing….check them all out!
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Be sure to pick up a copy of my newest poetry book…
STATIC STRUT by Bill Shute
KSE #421, 125 pages, 6″ x 9″ perfect bound, softcover, $6.95 cover price
published 2 January 2024
available for immediate order in the USA from https://amzn.to/48GeYC5
Kendra Steiner Editions (Bill Shute) 
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