IF YOU’RE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM – JOE HENDERSON QUINTET * BLACK FEELING – JOHNNY HAMMOND SMITH * CELESTIAL BODIES – CATALYST * JOHN COLTRANE – CLIFFORD JORDAN QUARTET * H.N.I.C. – HAROLD VICK * TAWHID – JOHNNY LYTLE * BITCHES BREW – EDDIE JEFFERSON * AFRICANS UNITE – GARY BARTZ NTU TROOP * WARRIORS OF PEACE – AZAR LAWRENCE * LET’S MAKE PEACE AND STOP THE WAR – FUNK INC 

Soul, politics and spirituality in jazz 1967 to 1975. Available in CD and gatefold 2LP formats. 

In the late 1960s jazz was at a turning point. Soul music had taken much of its black audience and rock’s intellectualisation was eating up its support amongst college students. It was a period of radicalisation for black America: a disproportionate number of young black men were being shipped to Vietnam, the inner cities of Detroit, Washington, Los Angeles and Newark were ablaze and Dr Martin Luther King was gunned down in Memphis. There was a sense that something had to be done and, with this in mind, outlets both political and spiritual sprang up. As a central part of the community, jazz musicians took their cues and their music reflected this. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem” became one of the mantras for black America’s struggle for civil rights. 

This collection draws upon the melting pot of ideas that can be picked up in veteran Hammond player Johnny Smith’s call for ‘Black Feeling’, or the cosmic wanderings of the obscure Philadelphia group Catalyst. Funk in all its forms can be found in the relentless bass rhythm of the title track or the Miles Davis-influenced shifting groove of Johnny Lytle’s ‘Tawhid’. It was an exciting period and the music is caught up in that, but above all there is reverence for the greats such as Davis and John Coltrane who are the pillars of a newly confident black culture.

In 2019 the jazz revival spearheaded by Kamasi Washington in the USA and young London-based groups such as Sons Of Kemet and Ezra Collective mix a variety of sounds to keep their music relevant for a younger generation. “If You’re Not Part Of The Solution…” explores where this happened first. 

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