{"id":1956,"date":"2009-02-27T13:27:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T18:27:49","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-02-27T15:50:23","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T15:50:23","slug":"jazzmat-beware-the-dashiki-wearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/jazzmat-beware-the-dashiki-wearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazzmat: Beware the Dashiki-Wearing Coltrane Associates on Impulse! Releases Employing Psychedelic Fonts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n
Burnt!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

John Coltrane<\/strong>‘s ’60s records were my entry into any appreciation I have to this day for jazz. I love most of the dozen or so albums I own from this period, but Coltrane is responsible for one of the great toxic waste bins in the jazz section of any store or online retailer. I’ve got nothing against dashikis or psychedelic fonts, in fact, I love them. But put them together on an Impulse!<\/strong> release and I’m not buying. I’ve been burnt one too many time – twice, in fact – by Coltrane albums packaged in this manner, and I won’t be burnt again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Sorry, Pharoah. I’m sure you’ll understand.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After buying a few “pyschedelic” Coltrane albums I steered clear of possibly Pharoah Sanders’ best works<\/a>, but I probably saved myself the money and effort of trying to get into countless other “psychedelic jazz” wankfests. If for no other reason, I’m confident my bias against attempts by Impulse! to tap into the psychedelic rock era were justified by the line I swore I would never cross:
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
A line I swore not to cross.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

To this day I’ve never heard Coltrane’s Sunship<\/em>. There’s so much that appeals to me on that cover shot, but I’d been burnt one too many times. I buy that thing<\/em>, I said to myself, and next thing you know I’ll be shelling out for all those anthropological museum-worthy Art Ensemble of Chicago<\/strong> albums.<\/em> Townsman dbuskirk<\/strong>, you are a bigger man than I!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

I’ve made at least one exception to my restraint in purchasing albums by dashiki-wearing jazz cats on Impulse! releases employing psychedelic fonts, an Albert Ayler<\/strong> album that I like. Before buying that album I first heard Ayler on an E.S.P. release, a label that tapped directly into the hippie\/freak scene without stooping to dashikis and psychedelic fonts. Even with those trimmings on the Impulse! release, Ayler did his thing as if he’d been packed in stark, tasteful, black and white graphics.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s the tasteful gold suit.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Honestly, the notion that “head music” needed to be packaged in mind-blowing, psychedelic record sleeves got old fast. How many psychedelic rock albums past Are You Experienced<\/em> really were worthy of that font? Mile Davis<\/strong>‘ “psych” albums on Columbia had the good taste to employ a “trippy” look that picked up on the growing Afro-pride angle of the dashikis and nappy beauty but avoided the trappings of some lame Disreali Gears<\/em> knock-off. Ornette Coleman<\/strong> generally kept his distance from the dashiki and psycedelic font set, allowing the mod font and smokin’ twins to do the Love Generation talking on his very cool Love Call<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Among some of his best-known associates, Charlie Haden<\/strong> and Don Cherry<\/strong> did not show their bandleader’s resolve. Was Haden the whitest jazz cat to don the dashiki? <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
THAT’S what I call a white dashiki!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

(His Music Liberation Orchestra<\/em> album is a winner, though, and another exception to my jazzmat guidelines.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Another exception to my rule.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I’ve never heard the following album by Mandingo Griot Society<\/strong>, featuring guest Don Cherry, but I imagine my man db owns the German import version with bonus tracks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n
Jazzmat!<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What’s really sad about this bias that Impulse! instilled in me with their late-60s graphics is that it took me years to give Sun Ra<\/strong> a second listen. The marketing of and cult around Sun Ra seemed to have embodied this movement, even though he wasn’t an Impulse! artist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Burnt! John Coltrane‘s ’60s records were my entry into any appreciation I have to this day for jazz. I love most of the dozen or so albums I own from this period, but Coltrane is responsible for one of the great toxic waste bins in the jazz section of any store or online retailer. I’ve […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[136,77,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}