JAZZ FINDS THE GROOVE

WHEN JAZZ GOT ELECTRIC

By the late 1960s, another revolution was happening.

Soul was exploding on the scene and Funk was changing the rhythm section.

Rock was becoming increasingly adventurous and Electronic instruments were becoming more accessible.

Jazz musicians were paying attention and the question wasn't whether Jazz should change.

The question was where could it go next?

11 — MILES DAVIS GOES ELECTRIC

Miles Davis once again found himself at the centre of the transformation.

Albums such as In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew brought electric keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion and studio experimentation into Jazz.

Then came On the Corner.

Here the connection with Funk became even stronger.

The music was repetitive. Hypnotic. Rhythmic and Dense.

The traditional Jazz idea of the extended solo was being placed inside a much heavier groove.

This was Jazz learning something from Funk. And Funk was learning something from Jazz.

The boundaries were disappearing.

12 — HERBIE HANCOCK AND THE GROOVE

Few musicians demonstrated this transition better than Herbie Hancock.

Having already established himself as one of the great acoustic Jazz pianists, Hancock embraced electric keyboards, synthesizers and Funk.

Head Hunters became one of the defining recordings of this transition.

The Jazz musician was no longer simply improvising over a rhythm section.

The groove itself had become the foundation.

The Fender Rhodes.
The clavinet.
The synthesizer.
The bass.
The drums.
The percussion.

Everything was designed to move and the groove created the perfect pocket. Suddenly Jazz could sit comfortably alongside Soul and Funk.

This was the beginning of Jazz-Funk.

13 — THE RECORD CRATE BECOMES THE CONNECTION

Donald Byrd.
Roy Ayers.
Bob James.
Lonnie Liston Smith.
Grover Washington Jr.
Ramsey Lewis.
Eumir Deodato.

These musicians created records that could be sophisticated enough for Jazz collectors while still carrying the grooves that attracted Soul brothers and Funkateers.

And decades later, Hip-Hop producers would find another layer.

The breaks.
The basslines.
The Rhodes chords.
The percussion.
The orchestration.

The strange little sections that sounded almost like they had been designed to be sampled.

A Tribe Called Quest would dig into the archives of Jazz.

Guru and DJ Premier of Gang Starr would build beats around Jazz samples.

Digable Planets would make Jazz central to their sound.

Madlib would turn Jazz records into an entire musical universe.

And suddenly a generation of producers who grew up with the birth of Hip-Hop began working backwards.

They discovered artists like

Miles Davis.
Herbie Hancock.
Roy Ayers.
Donald Byrd.
Bob James.
Lonnie Liston Smith.

Not because they had decided to become Jazz musicians, but because Hip-Hop had led them to the source.

JAZZ COMES FULL CIRCLE

Jazz began as a musical conversation.

Musicians found inspiration from the music around them. Blues, Ragtime, Gospel, Calypso and popular music became starting blocks to be deconstructed, reimagined and rebuilt.

They developed Swing. Then Bebop, then Cool, Hard Bop, Modal Jazz, Free Jazz, Fusion and Jazz-Funk.

And at every stage, musicians took what came before and evolved it.

That same philosophy eventually became fundamental to Hip-Hop.

Hip-Hop producers became modern Jazz musicians, the sampler became the instrument, and the record crate became the library.

A producer could take a horn stab from Donald Byrd.
A bassline from Roy Ayers.
A drum break from Bernard Purdy.
A piano chord from Bob James.

Throw them all into the pot and mix up something deliciously new.

That is why Jazz matters so much to the story of modern music.

It didn't simply give Hip-Hop records to sample, It gave Hip-Hop a musical philosophy:

Take the music you dig, deconstruct it. Then reinterpret it the way it sounds in your head.


Lucky 7’s of Jazz

Part 1 — The Birth of Jazz: From New Orleans to Swing

Louis Armstrong – Hot Five / Hot Seven
Jelly Roll Morton – Black Bottom Stomp
Duke Ellington – Ellington at Newport
Count Basie – The Atomic Mr. Basie
Billie Holiday – Lady Day
Coleman Hawkins – Body and Soul
Art Tatum – Piano Starts Here

Part 2 — The Bebop Revolution: When Jazz Broke the Rules

Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie – Bird and Diz
Dizzy Gillespie – Afro
Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell
Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – Moanin'
Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus

Part 3 — Freedom & Exploration: From Modal Jazz to Free Jazz

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
Bill Evans – Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come
Sun Ra – The Nubians of Plutonia

Part 4 — Jazz Finds the Groove: From Fusion to Hip-Hop

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Herbie Hancock – Head Hunters
Donald Byrd – Black Byrd
Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Everybody Loves the Sunshine
Bob James – One
Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes – Expansions
The Blackbyrds – City Life