Category Archives: Jazz

electronic, Groove, instrumental, Jazz, vocal samples

DJ Shadow Entroducing

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Entroducing – DJ Shadow
If you need to send your brain to disneyland while you sink into some seriously deep grooves this is the album for you. Either way, it’s one of those albums that changed music, and showed what was possible when an amazing DJ flexes his mixing muscles, but serves the music.

Like most great albums and ones you can work to it takes you on a journey. It starts with samples and an introduction that might make you think it’s going to be a schizophrenic musical odyssey just before you hear, “Building Steam with a Grain of Salt.” When the bass kicks in a most relaxed way, you get a feeling for the  groove that marks this album out like an albino at a tanning salon.

A mix of hip hop, samples, ambient, and light electronic. The whole album was recorded at DJ Shadow’s house, with minimal technology, before he finished it off at the studio of Dan the automator.  Now this kind of mix of genre and beats is commonplace, but at the time was a landmark of groove and production. The album is a stand out and has not aged.

Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead have cited it as a key influence on the making of OK Computer. This is an album a lot of musicians love, so it inspired a lot of the music of the late nineties. Entroducing made it bigger in the UK than the US, but has grown as a classic album beloved by many, including critics.

There was talk of it being the world’s sample only album, but there are spoken word parts  that have not come from samples. It sampled  David Axelrod, Nirvana, Bjork, T-Rex, Marlena Shaw, and Twin Peaks to name a few.

Released
1996

Lyrics
No only samples. Shadow’s aim was to make a completely sample based piece of music, and it makes do with only a few vocal contributions from Gift of Gab and Lyrics Born.

Mood
Slow groove music, instrumental hip hop, electronic

Good to work to
This is a slow groove album. One I love listening to, and takes me into a relaxed place. For listeners who aren’t used to listening to any hip hop, or sampling, i.e. Not listening to music in coffee shops, the samples may grate to some extent to some extent, but they are purely part of the musical journey, and can help provide mini-breaks or re-sets in your thinking.

Like
While this kind of album that is commonplace now, at the time it was groundbreaking. It’s  still a classic album. This genre of instrumental hip hop and house music is very main stream now. I can see aspects of this in artists like Bonobo, and lots of mood DJs like Wax Tailor. DJ Shadow takes it to a darker place.

The Artist/s
DJ Shadow aka Josh Davis is one of the world’s most influential DJs.

Other works
It’s a great mix with samples and nods to tracks such as Tears by Giorgio Moroder in Blood Donor. It leads to a lot of music, but this is perhaps what I’d see first.

The story is that after this album he realised that most of the money was going to the many people he had sampled when it was a high selling album. DJ Shadow followed it up with “The Private Press” another well received album, although his later output has not scaled the same heights as Entroducing.

Lovers of the slow groove may also like Bonobo, but Entroducing is definitely the superior album

For some reason this album reminds me of the Bitches Brew, a similarly dark cut and paste album you can read about.

He has some good albums, but his latest is my favourite  at the moment. The Mountain with Fall, a different style album with tracks with collaborators like Run the Jewels rapping on the second track.

 

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You can get this album anywhere. I’ve had it in multiple formats, I love my vinyl copy, but iTunes is as good a place as any to get a copy.

The Verdict
I can’t recommend this album enough, but it’s not going to work as a writing album for everyone. You’ve got to be able to relax into these grooves for it to work for you. For me it takes me to another place.

Jazz, magical, pop, soundtrack

Julee Cruise – Floating into the Night

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A great album for David Lynch fans, Julee Cruise in her greatest moment. Dream pop, calm, and sombre magical are the words for this album which created the mood for the must watch TV series Twin Peaks.

This album was created of the back of the Blue Velvet film, and used extensively for the soundtrack of Twin Peaks the television series. Angelo Badalamenti and Director David Lynch composed the music and Julee Cruise was brought in to perform the hauntingly beautiful album. Twin Peaks was a revolutionary television series with touches of the surreal based around the brutal murder of a high school girl, Laura Palmer, in a rural community.

Badlamenti was tasked by David Lynch to create ethereal music for the earlier Lynch film Blue Velvet. Cruise was selected on the basis of her participation in a Theatre Workshop that Badalamenti had produced. When Badalamenti was commissioned to create the soundtrack for Twin Peaks Crusie was the perfect choice.

 

The single was called falling and it made the Billboard charts while the album sold half a million copies.

Released
1990

Lyrics
Yes this album is a breathy showpiece. All lyrics were written by David Lynch and all music was composed by Angelo Badamamenti.

Mood
Calm and relaxed is what this album is all about.

Good to work to
Great album to relax to.

Like
Like a jazzy mood album of the past, mixed in with a dose of dark magic.

The Artist/s
Julee Cruise who sings the tracks is an actress and singer.

David Lynch the lyricist is an acclaimed film director

Angelo Badalamenti is a composer who has worked on a host of soundtracks and other musical projects

Other works
Julee Cruise did release other albums after this but it would be fair to say there is no way it could be compared to this.

What I would recommend is the Blue Velvet soundtrack. This was another Lynch Badalamenti collaboration and the first where they brought in Julee Cruise on the track Mysteries of Love. The success of this collaboration gave the impetus for the latter album. It is different as it is a more traditional soundtrack featuring the music of other artists such as Roy Obison with In Dreams and Bobby Vinton on the title track Blue Velvet.

Angelo Badalamenti was a continued collaborator with David Lynch so you might want to check out some of the other soundtracks they worked on such as the darker follow up Twin Peaks movie Fire Walk with Me, likewise other movies such as Mullholland Drive. I wasn’t able to find much of this on itunes, although I’m sure it’s there if you search hard enough. Below is a link to the official Twin Peaks soundtrack.

 

You may also like Dark night of the soul, a musical/visual project of Sparklehorse and David Lynch with a range of musicians and featuring Lynch singing on a few of the tracks. A different style to the featured album, but interesting

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
A bit pricier on vinyl these days, but fairly cheap on iTunes and a winner from start to finish.

The Verdict
A great album, just what you need to send yo on to another world. This album definitely has a presence that may work for you.

instrumental, Jazz, magical, Music to write to, soundtrack

Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas

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Existential cartoon kids and their dog Snoopy make TV Christmas special, bring on the piano jazzman with music tailormade to chilling by the fire. One of the best selling Christmas albums of all times, it’s made up of a mix of standards and remakes with a jazz tinge.

The Vince Guaraldi Trio don’t rock, but definitely swing A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Charlie Brown and his friends were very popular from the fourties through to the nineties. There were movies, the regular cartoon strips, and merchandising, Charlie Brown and Snoopy were everywhere. The characters in Charlie Brown were flawed, sweet, selfish and funny. They had human stories that touched on simple truths. Guaraldi with his jazz roots was a natural to do the soundtrack

I’m a sucker for the little drummer boy and the version that’s here is a killer. Have a listen I can’t really do it justice with words. It puts me in a happy place.

Released
1965, re-released 2006

Lyrics
Instrumental mainly piano, bass and drums, but on a few of the tracks there is a sweet little children’s choir.

Mood
Happy and festive you can’t go wrong with this little number. It’s a really sweet piano album that makes me feel calm and happy. It’s also better than your average Christmas album.

Good to work to
Definitely great for work, but maybe ideal for more contemplative tasks. Very calming, at least for me.

Like
A cross between a Christmas album and a soft jazz album.

The Artist/s
Vince Guaraldi was a jazz groover putting out a steady number of jazz recordings and soundtracks from the 50s to 70s. It’s all chilled music. He reported chest discomfort to his doctor who advise him he had nothing to worry about. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack.

Jerry Granelli – drums
Vince Guaraldi – piano, Hammond organ, arrangement
Fred Marshall – double bass
Additional musicians
Colin Bailey – drums on “Greensleeves”
Monty Budwig– double bass on “Greensleeves”
Children’s choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in San Rafael California.

Other works
Although of a totally different genre, this is a commercial album commisioned by the Coca Cola company, just like LCD Soundsystem‘s cracker album  45:33 was commisioned for Nike. Maybe they both paradoxically felt free of commercial constraints when they made their album.

Guaraldi has stacks of other albums like this one below, but I’m not enough of a connossieur to recommend anything in particular. Much as I don’t like to do it, but how about you listen to his best of and see what tickles your fancy.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You can get this album most places. It was such a popular album that it has ensured it stayed in print. Of course you can also get it digitally on iTunes. I really like this album, but maybe I’m just sentimental.

The Verdict
Thumbs up, buy it.

electronic, Groove, Jazz

Bonobo – Black Sands

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Bonobo – Black Sands – writing music
This is a contemporary electronic groove mood album that bubbles along. No doubt at some stage it will be considered cliqued along with its production values, but for me it works. It all fits together and despite the fact there is some cleverness the music fits together thematically and maintains the grooves that work for my brain to keep typing away.

This album is put together tightly and works without the kind of distractions that may throw you off track while you’re writing. There are lots of tight drums, keyboard, the occasional sample, violin, bleeps, but all very smoothly worked in.

Tom the french dude who works in my local coffee shop put me onto this album, and it is certainly flavour of the last few years, and prime grooving in the coffee shop kind of music. If this album were a colour it would be warm and tasty, kind of like caramel. It has good production, but it is quite subtle. Definitely not and in your face kind of album.

Released
2010

Lyrics
Some but not a lot of lyrics. There is the odd downbeat songs with lyrics, but not the kind where the vocals feature to an extent where they are used as much more than another instrument. Groove lounge music.

Mood
This is a really chilled out groove album that is more reflective and downbeat than anything else. It’s not really the kind of music that is going to have you opening a vein, but don’t expect any chuckles. The whole reflective tone of Black Sands is exactly what you want when you are writing.

Good to work to
I got it as a safe birthday present for my brother and it works well for dinner parties and for writing when you are already on track and know what you want to write. Sometimes when you’re in the groove a metaphorical athletic support can help everything on its way.

This is a great album to work to for all styles of workers. It is an experimental style of music, but done in a very safe way. It might not sound that attractive, it’s something you could play for your mum without any fear of upsetting her.

Despite this mixed review, take it from me just plug it in and you’ll start working. It’ll get you tapping. The nice thing about this album is that it keeps moving. For me all that is important is to keep moving, keeping on typing and the music has done its job. You might even enjoy it after a while I definitely have.

Like
This is one of those albums that used to be included in ministry of sound compilations, that are played at groovy bars and coffee shops.

The Artist/s
Bonobo also known as Simon Green is an English DJ.  Bonobo has been releasing music side 1999. I have only known about him for the last few years, but that means nothing. His work has been described as trip hop electronica, and many other strange words, such as ‘new downtempo’.  New downtempo, give me a break!

Other works
Bonobo’s more recent offering is called “the North Borders’ is quite a good album also and comparaitive in quality for your writing aid.

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
You should be able to find this everywhere. I’m sure this sounds great on vinyl, but I don’t know whether I’d bother, I like it but more in the background when I’m doing things.

The Verdict
This is a good one to listen to first before making the perfect. I think it works really well, but I don’t think this groove album is for everyone. Black Sands definitely takes you on a journey. It is a seamless journey but a journey nonetheless. I find this whole concept of a journey really important in an album I write to it gives my head some peaks and troughs. Who knows whether some of the sounds will appear dated in a few years, regardless I think it will still serve its purpose. The one thing I will say is that for some people this music will not different enough to take you into a different headspace.

Jazz

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew

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Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Warning: This album will definitely not help everyone to write. When I first listened to this album I did not get it and had no idea why it was considered such a masterwork. The thought of working to it was the very last thing in my mind.

Most music critics consider this to be one of the best albums of all time. It is an eclectic album that Davis set up and recorded quickly. It has a more extreme playing and production style than any of the earlier cool jazz and earlier styles of jazz that made him famous. Recording with different groups of students, effects that were new at the time, and intense editing techniques.

The whole mood of this album is synonymous with the night and things that groove with it. I find it to be one of the best albums in terms of putting me into a different headspace. I find that a lot of the smoother writing albums don’t cut through every time, this one does but what comes out is not always going to work for every type of writing.

There is a moody desolation to this music which does it for me at any rate. When this album was recorded there was only a few people like the Beatles who were experimenting with the cut up style. It influenced many later albums and the later jazz musicians. The improvisational style is deceptive, because this album was also the result of a lot of time in production.

The album has some pretty cool sixties seventies artwork as well. I don’t know what it means but it works. This shows the best of electric Miles stage, around about when this was recorded Miles had married and divorced the funk queen Ketty Davis and definitely been influenced by the experimental electric music of the period, and artists like Jimi Hendrix who Davis hated because he was jealous of his friendship with his former wife Davis.

Released
1970

Lyrics
No lyrics, lots of brass, lots of weird noises guaranteed to get you going.

Mood
There is a weird ethereal, spooky vibe to this music. It took me a long while to get into the movement of it and then it sounded natural. The weirdness is something that will push you out of your comfort zone, but once you’r used to it, it succeeds every time in instantly focussing me on work with no distraction. This is generally exactly what I need to get typing without distraction.

Good to work to
A great album to work to. I would include the proviso that this is a really good introspective album rather than a mechanised disciplined album. This is a wild animal of an album, one that everyone should have listened to at least once.

Like
I can not think of anything that is like this, this is only an album that has been imitated ever since. Maybe you might find some more atmosperic works of the modern day that might approximate it, but I don’t think so.

The Artist/s
Miles Davis is jazz royalty. He was the king of jazz.
Teo Macero – Producer
Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone
Bennie Muapin – bass clarinet
Joe Zawinul – electric piano
Chick Corea – electric piano
John McLaughlin – electric guitar
Dave Holland – bass
Harvey Brooks – electric bass
Lenny White – drum set
Don alias – congas
Juma Santos – shaker congas
Airto Moreira – percussion and cuica

Other works
There are so many other albums I could recommend, but I can only ponder what is the correct one to use for writing.  There are so many great albums, one of my favourites is ’In a Silent Way’ recorded the year before which would be considered as a much more straight up and down album.  I can’t give you a direct comparison with any to the other albums though, perhaps ‘Sketches of Spain.’

Where Can I buy it, and in what formats
If you can’t find a copy of this to buy you’re not looking, it’s everywhere.

The Verdict
As pointed out in the earlier warning, this album is definitely not for everybody. Use it for concentrated burst of creativity or when you really need to take your head to work world quickly.

Classical, Jazz, Native American

Moondog – The Viking of Sixth Avenue

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This album is a stone cold classic, albeit a ‘best of’.  If a contemporary DJ mixed Native American beats, classical arrangements, and jazz they would be lauded as The Next Big Thing. When Moondog mixed these styles sixty years ago he was considered a talented kook. After hearing this hopefully you’ll be scouring the internet for his other releases. The Viking of Sixth Avenue is a beautiful, eclectic album.

I am verbose on many topics, but the music of Moondog speaks for itself. He has inspired countless people and thinkers. The Viking of Sixth Avenue is a compilation of his life’s music and career. The first thing you need to know is that Moodog was a tall blind man who dressed as a viking, and lived on the streets of New York. This might not be all you need to know, but hopefully it is enough to interest you. Moondog fits his own genre.

Moondog, a.k.a Louis Hardin, grew up and lived in the west of America. It is said that the seminal moment in his life was when his father took him to watch a Sun Dance of the local Arapaho tribe. He is said to have sat on the lap of Chief Yellow Calf and played a tom-tom during the ceremony. Moondog can truly be seen as a product of a past era. He was an unwitting pioneer of world music, influenced by jazz and classical music training made available to him by chance, after he was blinded in his youth.

Released
2005
This album was compiled and released by Damon Alban, champion of world music and lead singer of hugely popular seminal Brit pop band Blur. The music was originally recorded from the 1950s through to the 1990s.

Lyrics
Generally not. Where there are words, they are mainly samples with the occasional spoken word aspect.

Mood
Slow to fast, jazzy to classical, to world.

Good to work to
Ideal to work to. Meets all my requirements. It takes you beyond the distractions of the everyday, and has few associations for a busy mind to cling to or to be diverted by. This particular compilation flits between genres from be-bop, street sounds, and Native American-inspired classical. Your brain does not have enough time to get used to any one particular vibe, but the differences in music are not jarring, and this makes it excellent focus music. However, it is not erratic.

Like
I can think of nothing like this album and artist. Don’t let it discourage you though. Moondog is, or rather was, like classical/Native American, and be-bop.

The Artist(s)
Louis Hardin, who later took the name of Moondog, had a fascinating life.

Brought up by his father near an indian reservation. He became completely blind when a blasting cap he was holding in his hands exploded, at the age of sixteen. He was sent to a school for the blind and received a musical education he said he could not have afforded otherwise. Perhaps because of the loss of his sight, his aural sense was heightened.

I am not sure why he moved to New York to live on the streets. He said that he dressed as a viking to gain more attention as a street performer. He had some memorable encounters with potential collaborators like Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Charlie Parker that all seemed to go awry at one stage or another. He eventually moved to Germany in the Seventies after many years on the streets and sporadic recording contracts. The Germans recognised his genius and took him under their wing, enabling him to record a number of eclectic albums using sax, church organ, among many other instruments.

Oh yeah… and he also invented various musical instruments.

Other works
Moondog had a long recording career, from his early days in New York to his latter-day eclectic renaissance in Germany. His other albums include Moondog, Moondog2, Elpmas, H’art Songs,  Moondog in Europe, Sax Pax for a Sax. Lesser-known albums were released from a random mix of countries in Europe and America. I would hunt them all down if I was you, but check to see whether you like this album first.

Where can I buy it, and in what formats?
You can get this particular album almost anywhere and in any format. While the rest of his collection might be hard to find, this album is not, and it is guaranteed to pique your interest.

The Verdict
Get out there and buy it as soon as you can.

Jazz, World

Alice Coltrane – Journey in Satchidananda

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Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda has a feel unlike any other album I know. Deep bass jazz grooves are infused with world music-flavoured harp and percussion.  A touch of India  is combined with the smell of jazz cigarettes in clubs across Europe and the US.

Alice Coltrane spent years studying mysticism, and it’s a fair bet that this was influenced her choice to make this album. The title track inspiration was the name of her guru, Swami Satchidananda. The different tracks tell stories about Coltrane’s life and spiritual journey.

Whether it is the diverse cultural references this music triggers, or something else entirely, this album is other-worldly. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think this is completely different from anything they’ve ever heard before. I saw this album years before I made the choice to buy it. The album with the crazy-looking name was a hard sell but, once I bought it, I never regretted it.

No-one knows where your mind goes when you’re tapping on a keyboard, the rare occasions when you can suspend endless thoughts about the past and the future; the worries of work, study, and your love life. This is an album that can send you to that other place, one you won’t want to miss.

Released    
1970

Lyrics
No lyrics to distract you. Not a word. This is a full body immersive experience record.

Mood
The same mix of sounds that makes this album unique is what makes it so immersive and effective to work to. Alice Coltrane has created a sonic world that takes me somewhere other than the present and my workaday worries, and is excellent for study. Depending on the day I’ve had, it can be hard to switch off. Music like this is like an instant drug that allows me to focus.

You will find that this record is an effective tool to create mood. My mood changes just seeing the front cover of this album showcasing Alice with her frizzy hair and kaftan. You need this album if you’re a writer – whether it’s to work through an essay or other academic projects, fiction, technical, or non-fiction.

Good to work to 
Anything demanding deep focus is a fantastic record to work to.  This is great when you need to think, but not necessarily the best thing for speed work.

Like
It has the jazz vibe, with classic sax and bass grooves, but the harp and percussive style give it a world music ethereal style that is unlike most other music (that I know of).  Despite these differences in style it contains enough familiar parts to be accessible, and within a short time the eclectic mix feels familiar.

The Artist(s)
Alice Coltrane’s music haunts the space between the mystical and the eclectic in a way unknown to any other works. She was the great-aunt of electronic musician, Flying Lotus, and second wife of jazz legend, John Coltrane.

Alice Coltrane studied classical music and jazz, soon becoming a professional. She eventually had children to, and married John Coltrane and played in his acclaimed groups. The list of musicians she played with before and after Coltrane died, shows you the esteem she was held in. This album is always one of the top albums in jazz and world music retailers’ lists.

 Featuring
Alice Coltrane on harp and piano
Phaoroah Sanders on soprano saxophone and percussion
Vishnu Wook on oud
Charlie Haden on bass
Cecil McBee on bass
Tulsi on tambura
Rashied Ali on drums
Majid Shabazz on bells and tambourine

Other works
I have dabbled in her back catalogue of albums and there are some gems, but don’t expect to find another journey exactly like this one. There are contemplative albums featuring different instruments, but I can’t tell you which one you’ll like. A few good ones you might want to try are Astral Meditations and Transcendence. Needless to say there are ones I loved and ones I didn’t, but Journey in Satchidananda is the only one I would say is a stone cold classic.

Where can I buy it, and in what formats?
This album is always in print, whether in vinyl, CD or MP3. If you’re looking for this album you’ll find it under jazz, although you could equally find it in the world music section. It’s always in print because it’s a classic.

The Verdict
Buy it now. If you can, get it on vinyl, so you can fully appreciate the crazy cover art.