New jazz, old jazz

In recent weeks I have bought a couple of really interesting albums. The first, John Coltrane’s “Both Directions at Once” is a ‘lost’ album from Coltrane recorded in 1963 during a time when he was in and out of the studio a lot. It has been hyped as a recording session that has coherence and focus in a way that makes it stand up as an album in its own right. I love Coltrane’s music – yes, all of it from the structured sounds he made with Miles Davis, through the devotional to the difficult free jazz. It’s all truly inspiring and moving. “A Love Supreme” deserves its place as one of the finest jazz albums of all time.

And yes, this is more than just an outtakes tape, it is a coherent body of music which has reemerged having been with Coltrane’s first wife for years. I am really enjoying listening to it and exploring the depths and breadths of the playing. The version of “Nature Boy” is a good way into the album.

The other album that arrived recently is “Listening to Pictures” by Jon Hassell. I have written about Jon Hassell before on this blog here and here. His music is in a genre all of its own. He plays trumpet using electronics and breath techniques learnt from Indian music and from the electronic avant-garde. He has made a body of work that is stunning in its originality. He was 81 years old back in March this year. Just when I thought we wouldn’t hear anymore from him, he has returned with a beautiful of album built largely from studio production and editing of earlier work from what I can gather. He is still pushing the boundaries and defining his own space, creating something which he calls vertical listening. He promises more albums to come using this technique.

The two albums are very different, but they have in common a striving to reach and go beyond the known boundaries of music, and create something that is beautiful. My music collection is much richer for the addition of these two pieces of music.

As always when I am listening to something new, it is prompting thoughts about ways in which I can adopt and adapt the ideas and techniques to other art forms and to ways of working more generally. So, some of the free improvisation, the cut-ups, the layering, and the use of existing material in new ways, for example. Truly inspiring…

Also published on Medium.