Jazz in the late 70s / early 80s (jazz goes pop, jazz goes disco)

Ronald Shannon Jackson & the Decoding Society - Mandance

Hmm, interesting... where else could you talk about this?

Nope, nothing so overtly in the disco vein. Ra's late 70s output is fairly diverse-- there are solo piano joints and freeform synth freakouts alongside the groove items. Re. the latter, I dropped some suggestions in a recent article for Deep Water.

http://s53.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=28HL211JB8FE231G3M8MB7X41P

Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter never made it to CD, did they?

Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter never made it to CD, did they?
ArtYard did vinyl pressings of both Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter. No legitimate CDs exist yet.

do you dj around the bay?

Can anyone recommend stuff with piano in?

That Sun Ra video on the You Tube thread was insane, in a very good way.

Geir, do you even read? it's right there in the first post, bro

i just spent a coupla hours in the store listening to a bunch of this stuff. i had to listen to "Poo Poo La La". it's fucking hillarious. "let me kiss you on your poo poo la la". like wtf?! who told him that was a good idea for a song?
http://s21.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2JOEKBGNP3WFU32R26V1XC6918

i ended up getting George Duke's "The Aura Will Prevail". a bit fusiony, but the songs with vocals are rad. and there's an MF DOOM sample on here.

There's a spectacular Earland track ("Ahead of Your Time") buried on The Great Pyramid, an otherwise middling-to-poor album. I've never seen it pop up on a compilation of any sort. It's on this mix, in case anyone's interested (most ot it's applicable to this thread, though it's mostly early/mid '70s).

This is the best thread I've read in a week. Ahh..

(1973) John Klemmer - Love Song to Katherine
(1974) Hamilton Bohannon - Thoughts and Wishes
(1974) José Feliciano - Golden Lady
(1977) Earth, Wind & Fire - Runnin'
(1977) George Benson - The Wind and I
(1977) George Benson - The World is a Ghetto
(1977) George Benson - Valdez in the Country
(1978) Eumir Deodato & EWF - Tahiti Hut
(1978) Joe Sample - Rainbow Seeker
(1978) Masayoshi Takanaka - Brasilian Skies
(1978) Roy Ayers - For Real
(1978) Roy Ayers - You Send Me
(1978) Weather Report - River People
(1978) Weather Report - Young and Fine
(1979) Bob James - Blue Lick
(1979) Dexter Wansel - New Beginnings
(1979) Eumir Deodato - Knights of Fantasy
(1979) Eumir Deodato - Lovely Lady
(1979) George Duke - Brazilian Love Affair
(1979) Grover Washington Jr. - Loran's Dance
(1979) Manzel - Midnight Theme
(1979) Masayoshi Takanaka - Radio Rio
(1979) Richie Cole - New York Afternoon
(1979) The Crusaders & Randy Crawford - Street Life
(1980) Eumir Deodato - Night Cruiser
(1980) Hubert Laws - Family
(1980) Masayoshi Takanaka - Finger Dancin'
(1980) Roy Ayers
(1981) Bernard Wright - 'nard
(1981) Masayoshi Takanaka - Rainbow Paradise
(1981) Roy Ayers - Destination Motherland
(1983) Nick Straker Band - Airwaves

...was sampled and turned into a Disco House song ala Daft Punk:

(1997) Sex-O-Sonique - I Thought It Was You

search: ramsey lewis' ramsey from 1979. a1 and b1 are disco. the rest is more on the jazz-funk side. production is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1UVeNg-2YU

Can't wait to get this on vinyl and slow it down the necessary 10 to 15 BPM.

such a great thread

fascinating era that still feels refreshingly unsettled wrt any standard narrative about jazz, pop, rock, R&B, etc

there's been some reassessment in light of various revivals but a lot of this stuff still seems barely acknowledged esp by jazz types

Donald Byrd would have turned 88 yesterday. I wrote a guide to his stuff which goes from the 50s to the 70s.

ty that is great! I found the sonny rollins one really helpful before

cracking article.
out of all my jazz era collection, other than The Axe (who was not totally jazz, but hey), Byrd is the main man i come back to the most.
such variety and excellence.

Yes, thanks for the Byrding guide; I've only heard "Christo Redentor" and a few other tracks occasionally played on my local jazz station (also remember the Blackbyrds a little bit).
Several thread-relevant albums here: https://daily.bandcamp.com/best-of-2020/the-best-reissues-of-2020 (the Fela prob has considerable jazz appeal too, I suspect). And they're all linked to bandcamp pages: Billy Brooks, Pharoah Sanders, self-funded Shirley Scott, South Africa's Heshoo Beshoo Group, advance bits of which I was totally buzzed by over on Rolling Reissues---the only one I hadn't heard or heard of was Brooks:

Windows Of The Mind Billy Brooks
BUY
GO TO ALBUM
Merch for this release:
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)

Billy Brooks established himself as a sought after session musician in the 1950’s, rubbing shoulders with Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, and Cal Tjader. Charles was clearly impressed by the funky trumpeter; in 1974, he signed Brooks to his sub-label Crossover Records, releasing the upstart’s Windows of the Mind LP the same year. Closing song “Forty Days”—famously sampled by A Tribe Called Quest on their enduring classic “Luck of Lucien”—is the album’s best-known track by a wide margin, but Brooks’ legacy runs much deeper than passing references: “Rockin Julius” is a lively flash of fashionable 1970’s funk, while “Jagged Edge” harks back to a more 1950’s film noir style. The album promises glimpses into the various windows of Billy Brooks’ mind. Turns out, they’re all pretty chill, not to mention genius. Album's page adds info that it's co-produced by Charles and featuring such heavy players as Herman Riley, Calvin Keys and Larry Gales. Will check.

I have a friend who is definitely not a music nerd, but got obsessed with Idris Muhammed's 'Could Heaven Ever Be Like This' as part of his frequent midlife fungi adventures. He wanted more and had no idea where to go, so I made him a big playlist and referencing this thread was very helpful, shouts out.

Some relevant stuff on this intriguing, recently revived thread, which I didn't recall having seen before: Miroslav Vitous -- Magical Shepard

Good call, definitely adding New York City on there. And definitely sampling the break on Aim Your Eye. ;)

Cool! Also, come to think of it, way back when Bobby Previte reappeared with Coalition of the Willing(2007) and his group of the same name, I was unexpectedly stimulated to connect with several 70s-80s intersections, trying to balance for new cadets and old hands----archived here:
https://papercomet.blogspot.com/2018/06/

& note link from that to Previte's bandcamp, where he's posted tons ov amazers.

Some of the albums I mention are from a bit later than 70s-80s, but in very much the same spirit.