Pharoah Sanders - Karma (1969)

I was about to quit posting jazz for the coming time, because I have posted enough of it over the last month now, when I was just in time reminded by myself to post this album: one of the greatest. Pharoah Sanders is a goddamn animal when he has a saxophone in his hands, and on this album that's quite noticeable. He builds up to an enormous free jazz explosion by playing some of the nicest music ever heard. Incorporating a lot of spiritual elements and even lyrics and thus, vocals.

One of the greatest free jazz, and even jazz, records. I hope you will like this as much as I do. It is truly a masterpiece, I promise.

the creator has a master plan
VBR

X - Wild Gift (1981)

When I posted the debut album by the great punk rock band X awhile ago, about three months ago already I guess. When the blog had just started. Time goes fast. Anyway, when I posted their debut I got some nice reactions about their music. They are really catchy, and not just catchy, but really catchy. They have interesting riffs and melodies to give us and they are, apart from that, important pioneers in the hardcore punk field.

This is their second album, almost as good, and at some days even better. It has 13 songs where the debut had 10, so there's even more to love here. Enjoy your day and enjoy X!

in this house that i call home
192kbps

Squirrel Bait - Skag Heaven (1987)

Because the word 'emo' became associated with horrible musical acts like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, it used to stand for a group of emotional hardcore bands that came out of the United States during the second half of the 80s as a supplement of hardcore punk. One of the best bands of that era was Squirrel Bait. Squirrel Bait became popular just after bands like Rites Of Spring and Hüsker Dü created and popularized the genre.

One of the most original bands of that time, Squirrel Bait, gives you 25 minutes of great hardcore songs. This is their only studio album, and they released an EP as well during that time. Short-lived band, great songs.

tape from california
320kbps

The Art Ensemble Of Chicago - A Jackson In Your House (1969)

The second album to be released on BYG Actuel, and also the debut album of The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, under the name they got famous for. The Art Ensemble Of Chicago is a really unique group of people that make free jazz as close to art as possible. When this group toured Europe in 1969, the year this record came out, they used over 500 instruments on their tour. A performance by this collective is as much an aural experience as it is a visual spectacle.

I really like this album, it is definitely not their best, nor is it their most famous, but it shows you how great BYG used to be and how much talent this group of people had together. All multi-instrumentalists and up for the experiment.

get in line
VBR

Andrew Hill - Point Of Departure (1965)

When this album happened in 1965, the year of the invention of free jazz, the hip jazz world was more and more descending into free jazz territory. This album was made by Andrew Hill with a sextet that, among others, had Eric Dolphy playing the saxophone, the bass clarinet and the flute. Dolphy was and will always be considered as one of the greatest players in jazz, and the albums he made as a leader are among my favourite jazz material.

So yeah, this album is a great mixture of avant-garde jazz going a wee bit free jazz at times, but most of all it is a balanced set of compositions that Andrew Hill made when he was at the top of his career.

spectrum
256kbps

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 (1997)

One of the most important composers of the late-Romantic time, and being a bridge between the music of the late 19th century and the start of modernism. What I'm giving you here is a great performance by the Wiener Philharmonic, conducted by Pierre Boulez (not only a great conductor, but one of the nicest composers of the 20th century) from 1997.

This 5th Symphony contains the fourth movement Adagietto, and that movement is probably the most recognizable music Mahler ever made. The 5th Symphony overall is also his most important work and Mahler is still considered as one of the greatest today.

trauermarsch
192kbps

Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe - Duo Exchange (1972)

Another really free album that came out of the free jazz burst at the end of the 60s. Easiest comparison to this album is Interstellar Space by John Coltrane, on which Coltrane and Ali played together as a duo. One of the greatest duo performances this is, ever. Although totally obscure, that doesn't mean it isn't any good. Frank Lowe is not Coltrane, obviously, but his way of playing is really fresh, free, and most important of all: great. Rashied Ali plays more structured than he does on Interstellar Space, and Duo Exchange is a much more urgent listen than Interstellar Space.

I guess you have all noticed that I've been posting a lot of (free) jazz lately. I hope you all like it, if not, bear with me, because I really want to post this masterpieces and I want people to like them. There aren't enough people listening to this kind of music, and I hate that. I'm writing an essay about free jazz at the moment, so this is all I really listen to.

duo exchange
VBR

Peter Brötzmann - Machine Gun (1968)

Machine Gun, the greatest ever European free jazz record, is not only alike of the sound machine guns, it also sounds a lot like a bunch of wild African elephants coming down the stairs. This record is so bombastic, so brutal and so over the top, that it's hard to imagine it was made in 1968, before the BYG Actuel storm, before a lot of great American free jazz happened. The Europeans were influenced by the Afro-American cats like Ayler and Sanders, who wanted more out of jazz then great, coherent melodies.

The urgency of this record was never topped by Peter Brötzmann and his fluctuating crew (on this album, an in-cre-di-ble line-up: Evan Paker, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker, Fred Van Hove, Peter Kowald, you name them) afterwards. This record catches the time it was made in: a ferocious time with a lot of uncertainties, and a lot of anger, as well. This record is as much an essential as most of the output by Ayler and his buddies.

machine gun
VBR

Miles Davis - Nefertiti (1968)

Before Miles Davis went crazy with creating fusion, Bitches Brew and all those dark fusion-jazz albums that came after it, he made some lovely little albums with some of the people who would go on to create the fusion in jazz with him. Present on this albums are Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Ron Carter. This line-up is also known as 'the second classic quintet'.

On this album there are some fine moments when the horn section plays the rhythm and the rhythm section improvises underneath it. Most noticeable on the title track. This album is really the missing link between post-bop and fusion-jazz, as this sounds really fusion, while remaining completely acoustic.

madness
192kbps

Dave Burrell - Echo (1969)

The quintessential wild free jazz album lies here in front of you. Free jazz is all about the abstract creation of freedom. Through sounds, through forms, shapes, a free jazz player tries to escape the material world to just exist within the song and his instrument. On the first side of Echo, we have a very wild piece of 20 minutes called Echo on which all the players (BYG all stars Clifford Thornton, Alan Silva, Archie Shepp, Grachan Moncur III, Sunny Murray, Arthur Jones and leader Dave Burrell) are going completely over the top. You have to hear it to believe me.

The second side of the record is calm compared to the first piece, but still beautiful and still far from normal jazz, as most people know it. I'm giving you a vinyl rip that contains some scratches, so bear with me. It is the only digital copy around on the net, so enjoy it.

echo
320kbps