Folk-influenced jazz

[rinoRotti]

Hey AAJ!

I stumbled upon something in jazz that I adore. Because I'm not sure where to look next, I thought I'd ask here!

Folk-influenced jazz. So far, I've discovered Tigran Hamasyan (A Fable is a great example of what I'm looking for), Avishai Cohen (Continuo) and Yaron Herman (Alter Ego). Be it embellishments based on scales from Middle Eastern/South Western Asian/other traditions and/or usage of exotic instruments: I'd love to hear it all!

EDIT: Could it be called Ethno Jazz? I'm not sure!

[walkin]

Pharoah Sanders and Maleem Mahmoud Ghania

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfOfLFVV4mM

Gato Barbieri

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XccpSzyCJi0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OTTyerF2Ms

[rinoRotti]

Not exactly what I was looking for, although I really dig Gato Barbieri. Thanks a lot for that one! I was hoping to find artists with a modern jazz sound, yet strongly influenced by folk music/their roots. Much like the artists I named earlier, really!

[Jay Norem]

What about Oregon?

[rinoRotti]

Sounds great! That's more like it, yes!

[Hot Ptah]

Drab Zeen, by Toufic Farroukh
Tamam Abi, by Alaturka
Albums by Rabih Abou-Khalil (I really like Blue Camel)

[HutchFan]

Originally Posted by Hot Ptah

Albums by Rabih Abou-Khalil (I really like Blue Camel)

Yes! Also Morton's Foot and The Cactus of Knowledge.

[Franco]

Brazilian "folk" influenced - three great CDs:





And a previoulsy unreleased live set from the same group and material as Magico:

[1/2 Baked, Not Fried]

Hey Rino - I dig a lot of that stuff, too. A while back, I posted the following playlist in the "Playlists for Newcomers" thread. A lot of good stuff, I think, and (as I point out in the narrative) a little heavy on the "folk" side. Anyway, perhaps it will give you a few avenues to explore. Good luck!

A 1/2-Baked World/Jazz Fusion Playlist

All jazz could be said to be a fusion of sorts, although some draws more from traditional regional folk musics than others. Some blur the lines altogether, sounding as much like improvised folk music as jazz. I don't really care about where jazz ends and world music begins. I like them both, as well as blurred together. So, here's a playlist of mostly contemporary stuff (with a few older pieces sprinkled in) that blends jazz with regional folk and popular musics, to varying degrees. If anything, this list is pretty heavy on the world-music side of things, with a Euro-Afro-Carribbean bias. Note, there are a lot of other tunes and albums out there that blend world music influences into more of a mainstream jazz platform than these. So, take that for whatever it's worth. Anyway, here goes:

Regina Carter: Hiwumbe Awumba (Reverse Thread)
Aquiles Báez (feat. Anat Cohen) A San Benito (La Patilla)
Oran Etkin: Yekeke (Kelenia)
The Kora Band: Sinyaro (Cascades)
Rabih Abou-Khalil, Joachim Kühn, Jarrod Cagwin: I'm Better Of Without You (Journey To The Center Of An Egg)
Dee Dee Bridgewater: Mama Don't Ever Go Away (Mama Digna Sara Yé) (Red Earth - A Malian Journey)
Renaud Garcia-Fons: 40 Dias (Solea) (Entremundo)
Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis, Henri Texier, Guy Le Querrec: Bororo Dance (Carnet De Routes)
Abdullah Ibrahim: African Herbs (African Sun)
Bireli Lagrene: Rue de Pierre (A Tribute to Django Reinhardt)
David Sánchez, Stefon Harris, Christian Scott: Nengueleru (Ninety Miles)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Freedom Jazz Dance (Freedom Jazz Dance)
Jane Bunnett: G.M.S. (Gandinga, Mondongo, Sandunga) (Spirits of Havana)
Pearl Django: Trois Et Deux (Chasing Shadows)
Miguel Zenón: Villa Palmeras (Esta Plena)
Luciana Souza: Sai Dessa (Duos II)
Harmonia Ensemble: Danza Prima (D.D.E.E.)
Charlie Byrd: Nuages (The Guitar Artistry Of Charlie Byrd)
John Zorn: Khebar (50th Birthday Celebration: Volume 11, Bar Kokhba Sextet)
Anouar Brahem: Astrakan Café (2) (Astrakan Cafe)

PS - here's another recent favorite I picked up a while back (one of Matt Ullery's projects, "Eastern Blok"). A Balkan/roots/jazz kind of thing. Good stuff:

[JazzyJo]

I have been digging the amazing sax sounds of Getatchew Mekuria, a living legend from Ethiopia. The latest record (recently reviewed in Downbeat) is:



He is now 76 years old and still plays with Dutch band The Ex.

Here is a link to a performance in New York City in 2008 - check out the dancer, he is "feeling it!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5-aO-5k-_g

[Tenorman]

Check out the scots jazzers
Tom and Phil bancroft and Brian Kellock

Napier Stride is a good fun mix of Jazz and Scots Reel

[bubber]

There's a lot of Scandinavian folk influenced jazz, you can check out Karl Seglem (norcd) for a start.

[Jazzclub]

More on the Scottish front: the work of Colin Steele is influenced by Scottish sounds and his band Stramash (which includes Phil Bancroft on sax) directly incorporates folk instruments.

Another folk-influenced artist is Czech pianist Emil Viklicky (in this case the influence is Moravian).

[PeterCS]

It sounds more like you would be asking people to track down bootleg soundtrack albums, Rino 'Nota' ...

but it's a good question.

Of course it depends how you understand 'jazz' and folk', but anyway, a few suggestions, from all over the place:




Jiri Stivin (flute, clarinet, recorder - Czech Republic) has played jazz (avantgarde/free, fusion, etc.), folk/traditional Czech, and classical. And admixtures.

No doubt following in Jimmy Giuffre's pastoral leads on clarinet.

And Bill Smith's tracks - e.g. on an album specifically named 'Folk Jazz'!

Note also Tony Scott's experiments in Far Eastern mixtures with freer elements of jazz (yet again clarinet!)

Jan Hammer's earliest tracks, in the 'Junior Trio' with Miroslav Vitous and his brother in the mid-60s, also laid down tracks for his compatriot Stivin to follow. (Of course he went on to electric frenzy fusion a la Corea.)

Jan Johansson (the PIANIST! d.1968) arranged and played folk tunes of Sweden and other countries with great beauty, taste and dexterity. Oscar encouraged such traits in his young Scandinavian sidemen, Louis Hjulmand too. Don Cherry added world and original musics to this mix, and expressive playing.

Chateau Neuf Spelemannslag (Norway) combined all sorts, including Hardanger fiddles. Their percussionist was a jazz avantgarde drummer.

Also look for Østerdalsmusikk (Norway too).

Seppo (Paroni = 'Baron') Paakkinainen has fused hippy, Finnish and baritone/soprano/flute jazz sounds, and has collobarated with Sami 'joik' singers from Lapland and a symphony orchestra (!), with unusual, haunting results - sonic Northern Lights!


Some of John Surman's more reflective solo work (he has even played recorder(s) occasionally - On Hubbard's Hill has nothing much to do with Freddie, as far as I can see). Listen also to his latest album: Saltash Bells.

Have you heard 'In Darkness Let Me Dwell', by the Dowland Project? Elizabethan lute songs by Shakespeare's contemporary given a (beautiful) hybrid treatment. The past is a different folk country ....

Surman has also collaborated with Anouar Brahem's North African oud (lute). Brahem has done a lot of ethnic/jazz collorations.

Some of Johnny Dyani's and Abdullah Ibrahim's early music (Ntyilo Ntyilo on Dyani's Witchdoctor's Son is outstanding) combine African themes and sounds with jazz. Check also Dudu Pukwana (In the Townships), Kippie Moeketsi (Clarinet Kwela), Hugh Masekela of course.

Sevda (Maffy Falay's Turkish-Swedish band of the 70s) was entirely memorable.

Quarteto Novo (Brazil), etc etc....I think a lot of Brazilian music is 'jazzy', in rhythm and expressive harmonic freedom alike. But that's open to argument.

Gary Peacock's solo 'December Poems' set up some original folk themes!

A great Canadian bagpipe band called Rare Air blended Scottish themes with folk, blues and world treatments - look for Small as Life and The Waiting Room, on Hard to Beat. Grier Coppins has since mixed blues, bagpipe, traditional, jazz and rock in a neat little band called Taxi Chain.

Tim Sparks is one who has played traditioanl Jewish themes on the guitar, Anthony Coleman did a sephardic album (piano).

Aldo Romano has played Italian standards with very effective jazz treatments in his Italian Quartet of the 1990s.


The list is worldwide, endless.

I haven't even mentioned North American folk, traditional, bluegrass .... or Coltrane's strange takes on Greensleeves!

[PeterCS]

Art Lande's takes on Americana .... Eccentricities of Earl Dant, Hardball!