The Armpit Collection XXVIII: Soul Jazz

"Soul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups...Soul jazz tends to use an 8th note groove (similar to what developed in rock and R&B music), while hard bop generally uses a shuffle rhythm, although there are soul jazz songs with shuffle rhythms and hard bop songs with steady 8th note grooves (although the latter are arguably definable as both hard bop and soul jazz."

This is a unique posting in the Armpit Collection because it depends entirely on your motivation and research to fill in the big blank _______. No specific record is officially chosen for slot XXVIII for a few reasons, one of which being that I'm personally still researching this whole Soul Jazz / Studio One phenomenon myself.

Basically, there's this great record label in the UK called Soul Jazz. I first ran into Soul Jazz during my year-long free record spoilings courtesy of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" 45 dangling from a chain around my neck. The consequence of wearing this necklace was winning a free record each month for a year from Harvest in Asheville. One of these records was Studio One's Rockers. Studio One is Reggae music the way you want Reggae music. Soul Jazz has been blessed with free range over the Studio One vaults, to which they're doing incredible justice by re-issuing and compiling a virtual historical retrospective on many aspects of not only Reggae music, but also musical culture of the mid twentieth century.

My palette is ripe with the possibility of how many of these compilations I can justify getting. At this time, I only have two, the aforementioned Rockers, and Scorchers, a collection of Reggae Soul Instrumentals. I'll continue with the second Volume of Scorchers and likely move on to the 3 Volumes of Roots and the 2 highly coveted Volumes of Soul as soon as possible. I urge you to browse the vast and compelling catalog of Soul Jazz.

"Roots music flourished in the 1970’s as Rastafarianism, Black consciousness and self-determinization became the most important aspects of Reggae music."

"Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the civil rights movement of the 1960s loom large as self-determination, economic power and musical freedom led to jazz artists finding new paths – both musical and economic."

See Also:

Trojan Label and Box Set Series