Friday Jukebox: Soviet Jazz-Funk
by Steve
I’ve had a lot more visitors to this little place than usual, so I thought I’d keep everyone engaged and all those other buzzwords with some Soviet jazz-funk. Because that is just the sort of thing to keep people interested.
I read this article about this YouTube channel and discovered this whole new world of weird, super-obscure Eastern European post-war music that is often really good and rarely not worth a listen, even if just out of curiosity. I still have a lot of it to work through. We live in something of a golden age for having access to so much music but it is rare to be able to tap into something that feels genuinely new and untapped.
There is something inherently exciting about chancing upon something new from the past, and this footage is great as, let’s face it, you don’t tend to get the opportunity to watch 1970s Soviet TV everyday. It is a bonus that the track is fantastic too. This isn’t just kitsch, this is amazing music worth our time.
As a bonus, here’s some Estonian library beat music, for those of you who haven’t run to the hills yet…
I must admit I pressed the YouTube play triangle with a degree of trepidation, but it was really quite good, much better than expected – if I had listened to it ‘cold’ I would have guessed something like a slimmed down version of Incognito.
LikeLike
It is far better than the title suggests it would be, but I fully understand your trepidation – I wasn’t expecting much when I pressed Play!
LikeLike
Both of these songs hit the right spots this morning. Thanks!
LikeLike
Glad to be of service!
LikeLike
Brilliant! The washed out film footage of the river trip in the first vid is a great contrast to the sort of imagery you usually associate with jazz funk. Great finds.
LikeLike
The washed out film really adds to it – the track is great, but the imagery really makes the clip. There is only so much footage of Soviet jazzmen I can take…
LikeLike
Nothing like loose wristed Soviet jazzist drumming to keep us all rivetted 🙂
LikeLike
Loose wristed Soviet jazzist drumming may well now be my favourite drumming style!
LikeLiked by 1 person
[…] after a surprisingly positive response to Soviet jazz-funk last week, I figured I’d try some Cambodian psych rock. Earlier in the […]
LikeLike