Not only does it mark John Coltrane’s first platinum record, but incredibly, it’s also the first jazz album of the 1960s to achieve platinum status.
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.
'Giant Steps' is widely considered a jazz essential and one of the most important albums in American music history, and its 2 special reissues are slated for September 18th.
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.
