Psychedelic Jazz Essentials

Psychedelic Jazz Essentials

Throughout its history, jazz has voraciously absorbed new ingredients and influences, and during the '60s, when rock musicians began experimenting with psychedelic drugs to create new structures and sounds, jazz took notice. While psychedelic jazz isn’t a concrete genre, many musicians folded sonic hallmarks from the rock movement into their aesthetic, sometimes as trippy kitsch, sometimes as a vessel for spiritual excursions. Trademark elements like distortion- and wah-wah-kissed electric guitars, Fender Rhodes keyboards and Eastern instruments like sitar and tabla turned up frequently, although the rhythmic attack usually veered toward funk, even when Steve Marcus tackled a rock tune like “Eight Miles High” by The Byrds. While some of the music was unabashedly fun, at its best psychedelic influences offered curious players a way to expand their sonic palette, letting the likes of Keith Jarrett, Freddie Hubbard and Gary Burton cosmically enhance their musical searches.

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