Well, finally I’ve heard some jazz that doesn’t sound like the background music in the Prozac factory. If I’d have heard this in my youth, and it was certainly available in my youth, my musical tastes would have taken a quite different direction. I’d have still ended up at modernism, but I’d have approached it from another place entirely.
This is a consequence of taking up the minimum emusic subscription, thirty tracks a month. EMusic publish “dozens”, critics lists of good albums, and I’ve been sampling electronica and jazz. Emusic tend to sell music from independent labels, so if your taste is slap bang in the middle of the juggernaut overtaking lane, they won’t work for you. But I recommend it to anyone who wants to explore.
The albums that have excited me are Albert Ayler’s “Spiritual Unity”, Revolutionary Ensemble’s “Vietnam”, and Peter Brötzmann’s “Fuck de Boere”. I think I might be making further purchases!