Spiritual Jazz 3: Europe

'Esoteric, modal and deep jazz from the European undergound, 1963-72'

At the end of the '50s, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue heralded the revelatory arrival of modal jazz. As the vibrations of these giant steps resonated across the world, European jazz musicians reassessed their bearings and began to steer a new course. Across the continent they sent roots down into the rich soil of the European folk and Christian liturgical traditions, extended their music along ancient routes of communication and trade to the Middle East, and reached across the crumbling ramparts of the European empires to the music of Asia Africa and Latin America.

The music collected here follows the richly tangled threads of meditative, modal and religious European jazz. Picking up where Spiritual Jazz 2: Europe left off, with volume 3 continuing our excavation of private releases, underrepresented artists and visionary one-offs that stud the European jazz landscape like standing stones. Just as it had waxed, so the cult of American jazz waned, and these recordings are the compelling documents of a musical world in imaginative transition and virtuoso transformation – a second trail of determined footprints on the pathways of European jazz.

THE MUSIC
Sublime choral jazz in an ecclesiastical setting, revolutionary sounds deep within the USSR, radical modal experiments inspired by excursions to the Asian continent and Latin America, advances in rhythm and sound where modern jazz combines with Balkan and Scandinavian folk traditions. This is Spiritual Jazz – European style.

· All tracks fully licensed and digitally restored from the original master tapes

· Comprehensive liner notes with individual notes on each track and original stories direct from the artist

· 16 page colour CD booklet with in-depth liner notes, album cover scans and previously unpublished photographs

· Most tracks never before reissued – previously only available on rare LPs that change hands for hundreds of dollars.

· Deluxe double vinyl pressing with thick, glossy double gatefold sleeve

· Only on Jazzman – all because WE DIG DEEPER!