The heyday of psychedelic jazz was brief but undeniably memorable; a beatific fusion of jazz, funk, psychedelic rock, and raga, the music merged East and West in a gorgeously transcendent and tripped-out explosion of sound and sensibility. The second volume in WEA's
Psychedelic Jazz and Soul series blows the dust off 11 more of the best and rarest performances from the movement's late-'60s/early-'70s peak, a moment in time when jazz fed not only on its own innovations but also embraced the hippie counterculture, radical politics, and Eastern mysticism with unprecedented fervor. The end result is mind-expanding music with no real antecedent or, sadly, descendent, an otherworldly marriage of wah-wah guitars, celestial keyboards, swirling sitars, and sinuous drums further distinguished by harps, vibes, and everything else under the sun. The material encompasses even more ground than you'd imagine, juxtaposing usual suspects like
Freddie Hubbard ("Hang 'Em Up") and
Herbie Hancock ("Wiggle-Waggle") with decidedly left-field selections like
the J. Geils Band's "It Ain't What You Do (It's How You Do It)." ~ Jason Ankeny