VARIOUS ARTISTS PART ONE: Red Hot Impulse

In 1994 I picked up an album called Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool it was a mix of Rap artists and Jazz artists doing songs together.  I loved the dynamic between artists like Lester Bowie, Wah Wah Watson, and Digable Planets.  Others of this dynamic included Roy Ayers and The Roots and another was Don Cherry and The Watts Prophets.  There were so many likable songs it was hard to pick just one.  If you got an early copy of the CD the second disc had an EP of original music Jazz with Branford Marsalis, Alice Coltrane, and Pharaoh Sanders.  The Branford Marsalis tune was his version of John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Alice also did a version but her's was from 1971. Lastly, the Pharaoh Sanders song was his 1969 classic "The Creator Has A Master Plan." It was not the full length thirty three minute opus but did a good job of editing to a single version of it at five minutes.

With this teaser I wanted to hear more Impulse recordings and more of the artists on the CD featured. When I came back to the store where I bought the Stolen Moments CD the guy at the counter who was a friend of mine, handed me an album called Red Hot On Impulse.  He told me since most every Impulse CD is out of print or really hard to find that this modest sampler should do the trick.  It also "crossing fingers" would get Impulse record label back in print and see some real classics come back out.  This Red Hot On Impulse was a compendium to the one I purchased and would help me explore what the golden age of Impulse was all about.  Like ECM or Blue Note, Impulse was a record label that broke ground to Jazz in the 60's.  It also was a label that had many Jazz greats that were popular at that time.  It was daring and sometimes Avant-Garde and other times it was cool and calm. The music of Impulse changed the way Jazz music was listened and also the way we bought Jazz.  If you talk Impulse records to a Jazz geek such as myself, a flood of great albums come to mind.

When I brought home Red Hot On Impulse I was ready to take whatever path the music decided to make me go to.  I wanted to be surprised when I heard a song and was ready to seek it out.  Like Impulse's motto, Elation, Elegance, Exaltation.  It did not take long to make the curiosity peak.  The first song on the album was a beautiful mix of Harp, Tamboura, Saxophone, Bass and Drums.  The song is called "Journey into Satchidanananda" and I felt like I was on the journey with the musicians and with my inner self. It was an amazing piece of work.  I didn't know music like this could reach an emotion that quickly grabbed you.

When I continued listening the album I was liking every song and now I wanted to seek out the albums that these songs came from.  The problem was neither the CD's or LP's were around to buy.  If the albums were around they were very pricey even for 1994 standards.  I could not go on Ebay and buy the originals and the there was no such thing as current re-issues or 180 gram albums then either. If anything Red Hot On Impulse gave me ideas of what I should listen to next.  I liked it all and hearing this fresh new music was great.  Thank my friends who are musicians to point out what artist on this album to point me in the right direction.

About a year or so some of these albums started popping up at the local record store.  I grabbed them quickly and listen to the rest of the album that these songs came from.  It was an eye opening experience and really made me think about what Jazz was like in the 60's and early 70's.  Artists like Alice Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Oliver Nelson, and Joe Henderson I never heard of before this.  It was that breath of air is what I needed to move my music listening from Classic Rock and Indie Rock to Jazz.  This music was extraordinary and powerful.  My parents thought I was acting odd with some of this music.  They did not know what to think.  I'm glad I went this way and I'm glad that I accepted this great music era and period.  

If your new to Jazz, then this might to big of a leap, of your wanting to take that leap, then this Various Artist album is for you.  If you like the classic Impulse records from the 60's, this is just a taste of what you already know, but it also might point you out in the direction of something you have not heard or listened to in a while.  Take a chance on Red Hot On Impulse and maybe you will find a new direction in music like I did.  This music is as fresh as it was when it came out.  It is beautiful and emotional. I love it more now then when I got it back in 1994.  This sampler is just what you need to go explore some of the greatest Jazz for it's time.  Check it out, it's pretty cheap on Amazon. the liner notes are pretty good too.  Enjoy!