Acid Jazz Happens

A well-known and much beloved editor for this fine blog once queried “Whither jazz?” Funny he should ask, cuz I don’t have a clue. Ask me about the past. Jazz goes where it wants to and where it’s accepted. Creatives will journey forth and the hope its followers will appear. But for every Snarky Puppy band there are hundreds of sound shifters without the recognition that could motivate them further. After all, the starving artist gig wears out its welcome and grates on the soul as quick as you can say “waitress job.” So jazz follows a unique trajectory, catering to a certain population that embraces improvisation above all, and doesn’t mind that a tune sounds different every time it’s played. Mostly grey hairs. And this population is a relatively small one. And getting smaller. Jazz appeals to a limited demographic these days due to all those young people milling about. Jazz is so yesterday, for Boomers. It’s a dense foreign language to youthful ears and whatever attracted their parents and grandparents no longer translates the sex appeal it once held.

So, whither jazz? At least for a period represented in this week’s playlist – mostly 21st century – it is getting hooked up to atypical non-jazz genres: electronica, funk, hip hop, and other musical dialects that bring together a younger audience. And it’s called “acid jazz.” If you can define it then you know what it is. Myself, I’m not sure. Though the music gathered here today, rendered in a jazzy manner, just might give a clue as to more contemporary directions.

Runlisto
Al compás del mundo
#175,
4-10-25 – acid jazz, etc

01 Greyboy Allstars - Ruffneck Jazz (USA)

02 Kamal and the Brothers - Brotherhood (USA)

03 Up, Bustle & Out - Poncho Cafe (England)

04 Kamasi Washington - Final Thought (USA)

05 Josh Roseman Unit - If I Fell (USA)

06 Papo Vazquez - The Reverend (USA-Puerto Rico)

07 Malachi Thompson and Africa Brass - The Chaser in Brazil (USA)

08 Radio Citizen - Night Part I (Germany)

09 NOMO - All the Stars (USA)

10 dZihan & Kamien - Homebase (Austria)

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Comments

Guitarras del mundo

Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...

Electric Chicago blues

Al compás del mundo Run List #172, 3-20-25 - electric Chicago blues 01 James Cotton - Love Me or Leave Me 02 Sonny Boy Williamson - Wake Up Baby 03 Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You, Baby 04 Howlin Wolf - You'll Be Mine 05 John Lee Hooker – Louise 06 Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It 07 Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle 08 Little Walter - I Don't Play 09 Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself 10 J.B. Lenoir - Don't Dog Your Woman 11 Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby 12 Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied 13 Sunnyland Slim - Shake It 14 Walter Horton - It's Alright 15 Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps 16 Magic Sam - She Belongs to Me 17 Johnny Young - Cross-Cut Saw 18 Eddie Boyd - Third Degree 19 Willie Dixon and Friends - I Cry for You Got to feature the blues from time to time on Al compás del mundo as there seems to be a shortage of such on Mexican radio. Although RadioactivaTX.org, the ...

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic. But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture. T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...

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