In the late 'sixties '60s French jazz label, BYG set out to record and capture a growing market of 'freestyle' jazz artists, like Archie Shepp, and now most of their catalog is being re-released by Charly Records.
Spiritual jazz, a genre born in the '60s and closely tied to that times' political, social, and cultural climate is experiencing a resurgence of sorts, is it again reflecting the moment we live in? We exam the genre's roots and its ever expanding horizons.
Albert Ayler, never getting the wider recognition he truly deserved, unleashed a free-form musical exploration that went beyond the boundaries of jazz or any other music that included everything he experienced musically – from church spirituals, New Orleans and Army brass music, to world folk forms, to free improvisation – any and all of these themes, often all at the same time.
