June is here, dear reader! For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it means Spring is on the verge of giving way to summer and, for those of you of the Southern Hemispheric persuasion, Autumn’s transformation to Winter is almost complete.
In our ongoing efforts to please everyone over the globe, the Progressive Subway Department for Musical Weather Suitability have devised a playlist for you that can at once capture the liveliness of Spring as well as the longing for shelter and a bit of coziness that comes with Autumn: Jazz.
Yes, Jazz. Often raucous and lively, often sombre and contemplative. The ultimate blend of music to suit your needs. Our writers Mathis, Sebastian and Will have tirelessly scoped out the very best the underground has to offer for Jazz-infused Prog music for your listening pleasure, whatever the season. Enjoy.
Will
Though I’m no expert on the subject, I’ve been a fan of Jazz for some time. There’s a lot to like about and engage with in Jazz and it’s always exciting to hear it being incorporated into prog. In selecting tracks for this playlist, I kept in mind the three main “traits” of Jazz that I love (Calm, smoky atmospheres, complete creative chaos and inspired technical musicianship) and found tracks in the prog-universe (“progosphere”?) that best reflected these traits:
Pure creative chaos can be found in Ephel Death’s “Passageway” embodies the creative chaos that I enjoy about Jazz and that Tom Waits used to great effect in tracks like “Midtown”. Ephel Death takes it further in adding overdriven guitar and the primal rawness of the human voice’s scream to create an atmosphere of pure energy. Candiria brings some similar energy with a proggy-jazz infused rap-metal which has to be heard to be believed!
At the extreme other end of the spectrum, Maudlin on the Wall embodies the calm, smooth, melodic sounds of artists like Dexter Gordon or Coleman Hawkins. SE:UM has been a band very close to my heart since I saw a few of their early tours in Seoul. “Abyss” is a smoky, mysterious piece that would make a beautiful soundtrack to a Korean Film-Noir, by effortlessly blending jazz and traditional Korean instruments to tremendous effect.
For the sheer technical brilliance that we so often find in Jazz musicians, I suggest you look no further than Mestís. Technical brilliance as well as heartfelt playing, Mestís is known for a lot of genre-hopping in his work and the track “Menta” is 5 minutes of pure brilliance.
Keeping true to The Progressive Subway’s mission of connecting listeners with underground proggressive music, most of my selection has been taken from smaller bands. However, I couldn’t resist sneaking some more well-known bands into the mix: Rivers of Nihil are well known for their incorporation of Jazzy saxophone solos to be incorporated into their track. And, after the lukewarm fan reception to latest album The Works, it’s important to go back to this band to remember why we fell in love with them in the first place. Jazz lost it’s best new drummer when Brann Daylor of Mastodon first spun up a metal CD. Daylor’s jazz-infused drumming, full of swung beats and beautifully subtle grace notes is sublime and deserves a spotlight in this playlist. Finally, no prog-jazz playlist would be complete without a nod to jazz powerhouse Snarky Puppy who, through the overwhelming force of their incredible musicianship, cannot be denied a spot on this playlist.
I enjoyed my jazzy journey making this playlist. Readers, please send me your suggestions of further jazz prog I may have missed!
Sebastian
For all of my jazz fusion picks, I decided to stay true to my prog metal roots. There is almost no underground band that I think better exemplifies the stereotypical conception of prog metal / jazz fusion than Panzerballett and the lesser-known Wax People. These both convey the complexity and precision of the two genres well and they authenticate the jazz flavor by including full-time saxophone and clarinet players. I also wanted to include the equally impressive instrumental jams from Mental Fracture and Coevality which have strong jazzy elements mixed in with their proggy breakdowns.
Another small but growing field of jazz-fusion metal is the resurgence of zeuhl in prog metal. Back in 2021, I had the privilege of reviewing Papangu’s debut album Holoceno. Not knowing jack about what this sophisticated, jazzy subgenre of progressive rock entailed I was thrown down a rabbit hole of researching Zeuhl history from the classics produced by Magma and Eskaton to modern gems like All Traps on Earth. To the standards of a die-hard zeuhl fan, the compositions in Holoceno are a bit down to earth and digestible but it still is one of the most cohesive fusions of metal and zeuhl to date and I would easily recommend it. I also wanted to include a song from a band nearly nobody has heard of; Odd Fiction may not be the most experienced but they deliver a short EP that provides a challenging listen and a more dissonant approach to the genre.
Mathis
When I think of jazz fusion the first artist that comes to mind is Plini. He played a major role in my interest and love for fusion, and was one of the first prog artists I discovered. I used to think that everyone was just trying to sound like him, but my ears were untrained. Eventually I discovered a plethora of other great jazz fusion acts. Nuclear Power Trio (NPT) is much more grand and energetic than the typical progressive jazz fusion you may know and love. For better or worse NPT is a satirical instrumental fusion band that consists of Kim Jong Un on Drums, Donald Trump as the guitarist, and Vladimir Putin on bass. It really is a sight to behold, and it conveys a beautiful message that music can unify us no matter how different we may be.
Then on the other hand we have Sound Struggle‘s “The Bridge” which is a story to be taken much more seriously. This song is a twenty minute epic that sits halfway through a massive concept album. Sound Struggle takes a different approach to fusion and blends metalcore with blaring horns, synths, and the occasional obscure instrument. Now we have strayed quite a bit from Plini‘s softer ethereal sound, but we can go even further with The Sound That Ends Creation (TSTEC). Who would have guessed grindcore and jazz mix so perfectly together? No one, it is actually nightmarish. TSTEC sounds like the soundtrack to zombie clowns attacking the horns section of a middle school band on methamphetamine. The music sounds kinda cool though, there’s nothing else like it.
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