Not sure if there were any real waves, but of course the combination of proto-ambient and jazz elements goes back to the early 1970s and classic tunes from the likes of Pharoah Sanders or Chick Corea (listen to Astral Traveling or Crystal Silence and tell me that's not ambient jazz). Of course at the time 'ambient' as a genre term didn't even exist yet.
I'd actually claim that ECM, the German label, was pioneering ambient jazz in the 1980s, even though nobody called it by that name at the time, and Manfred Eicher would probably frown upon hearing that term. But there was definitely a wave of instrumental, acoustic, ambient-leaning jazz music in the mid-1980s. A great early example is Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays' longform piece "As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls", which I've written about here: https://www.zensounds.de/p/metheny-mays-wichita
After that, I'd say the calmer end of the electronic downtempo/nujazz wave of the late 1990s/early 2000s could be counted as a forerunner too...
So much to dive into here, thanks for the recommendations. Starting off with Astral Traveling - I'm familiar with Harvest Time / Wisdom Through Music but haven't dived too deep into Sanders other pieces, absolutely loving this.
I’d also add the late-70s/early-80s albums by Jon Hassell and "The Pavilion of Dreams" by Harold Budd to the list. Sure Jon’s music has more tribal / exotica references and Budd veers more towards ambient tout-court, but I think they both have this sense of spaciousness in their sound. A personal favourite of mine is this 2009 live version of "Last Night The Moon Came" by Hassell 👉
Brilliant text!
thanks for reading Miska!
Great piece, and I agree that the one-two-punch of Promises and Space 1.8 kicked off the new wave of ambient jazz.
Thanks Stephan, long may it continue! If this is the new wave, is there a previous wave you could point me towards?
Not sure if there were any real waves, but of course the combination of proto-ambient and jazz elements goes back to the early 1970s and classic tunes from the likes of Pharoah Sanders or Chick Corea (listen to Astral Traveling or Crystal Silence and tell me that's not ambient jazz). Of course at the time 'ambient' as a genre term didn't even exist yet.
I'd actually claim that ECM, the German label, was pioneering ambient jazz in the 1980s, even though nobody called it by that name at the time, and Manfred Eicher would probably frown upon hearing that term. But there was definitely a wave of instrumental, acoustic, ambient-leaning jazz music in the mid-1980s. A great early example is Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays' longform piece "As Wichita Falls, So Falls Wichita Falls", which I've written about here: https://www.zensounds.de/p/metheny-mays-wichita
After that, I'd say the calmer end of the electronic downtempo/nujazz wave of the late 1990s/early 2000s could be counted as a forerunner too...
So much to dive into here, thanks for the recommendations. Starting off with Astral Traveling - I'm familiar with Harvest Time / Wisdom Through Music but haven't dived too deep into Sanders other pieces, absolutely loving this.
I'm touching upon some more of that stuff in these three pieces I published recently: https://www.zensounds.de/p/the-tragedy-of-ambient
I’d also add the late-70s/early-80s albums by Jon Hassell and "The Pavilion of Dreams" by Harold Budd to the list. Sure Jon’s music has more tribal / exotica references and Budd veers more towards ambient tout-court, but I think they both have this sense of spaciousness in their sound. A personal favourite of mine is this 2009 live version of "Last Night The Moon Came" by Hassell 👉
https://youtu.be/-7IRnin9gF0?si=NV81JcZ3b25o1F96