What are you doing? Take out your cheap, wax-encrusted earbuds, pleb and follow me. I will free you from the deluge of toilet sounds leaking into your ears and baptize you in the cleansing waters of jazz, which your clogged inner canals have probably never even heard. If you’re feeling hesitant, just consider the words of jazz pianist / Kendrick Lamar collaborator Robert Glasper: “Jazz is the mother or father of hip hop music. They’re both musics that were born out of oppression.” You could become the oldhead’s oldhead.
Come, child. Walk with me down rain-splashed night streets, ponder the cool puddle reflections of flickering streetlamps, and maybe you’ll feel as free as every free jazz saxophone soloist seems to feel. A word of caution: this Odyssean voyage demands the cognitive capacity to process higher order music theoretical relations… a certain level of intelligence if you will. Here’s the list of jazz I’ve been listening to that you haven’t.
Rabih Abou-Khalil — “Blue Camel”
The first bubble you must pop is the national one. Rabih Abou-Khalil was breaking cultural boundaries before globalized Internet genre-bending became a thing, and you can hear that sublime fusion of traditional Arabic melodies and rhythms with jazz counterparts. When you tell your friends you listen to world music, make sure it’s something actually good.
Walter Wanderley — “Rain Forest”
It’s Sunday morning. You forgot to drink water last night. As your friends begin to lurch up from their beds, everyone begins to feel as if they’re in an elevator only going up or in a mall full of palm trees and mid-century modern architecture. Bossa nova is the perfect hangover cure, and it’s no wonder it became the template for Nintendo menu themes. Wanderley goes fucking off on the organ (listen to “Cried, Cried” and tell me it’s not a banger), so it’s hard not to look at your own life and regret never becoming an accomplished bossa organist like your dad intended.
Nai Palm — “Needle Paw”
Nai Palm is the lead singer and guitarist of Melbourne neo-soul / jazz-funk quartet Hiatus Kaiyote. Her solo debut strips back the instrumental business, allowing her free-flowing chord progressions and vocal deftness take center stage. On the longest and most standout track, Palm crafts an excellent cover medley of David Bowie’s “Blackstar,” Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song,” and Hiatus’ own “Breathing Underwater.”
Max Roach — “We Insist!: Freedom Now Suite”
Any jazz aficionado worth their salt will understand the political contexts surrounding its creation. Robert Glasper recognizes that jazz and hip hop are “both are kind of like protest music.” Nothing exemplifies this more than Max Roach’s “Freedom Now Suite,” which stitches together themes of the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights and African Independence movements. On “Protest,” vocalist Abbey Lincoln frantically screams over Roach’s equally chaotic drumming, capturing the righteous indignation still present today.