Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes

18

Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes

By

View read count
Jazz Sabbath: The 1968 Tapes
The story continues: Jazz Sabbath's eponymous debut (Blacklake, 2020) introduced the premise of a progressive-minded late-'60s piano trio whose unreleased material was plagiarized and adapted in heavy blues style by those young upstarts Black Sabbath. The catalog got an even more fun horn-drenched expansion with 2022's Vol. 2 (Blacklake). The mysterious pianist Milton Keanes (da-dum) and friends commit to the mythology more than ever with The 1968 Tapes, complete with cover in classic Blue Note Records style and a mini-documentary behind the scenes. Whoever is handling the group's PR is really not getting paid enough.

The story goes that this was a predecessor to those other recordings, the black-sheep session deemed too experimental to release even before the band's tapes were lost. There are plenty of ambitious touches to back that up: although these arrangements have jitterbuggy energy to spare, the classic trot is spiced up by the odd dash of wild guitar or out-there synth to give a tinge of the cosmic. The club-jazz skittering of "Into the Void" quickly becomes a psychedelic funk jam with punny-named guests on sax and guitar; "Spiral Architect" bounces from dreamy ballad to ragtime stomp with barely a blink.

If the remaining tracks seem less extensive, they are no less expansive. They step lively through the "original" form of "Electric Funeral" as a moody-blue noir; "Warning" soars into a haze of Moog swirls. If these arrangements are light-years away from the versions the world has known for all these decades, that is precisely the point. There is always great fun to be had spotting the bones of the more famous pieces in this framework, especially a downright jaunty "War Pigs" bookended by a warm gospel intro and grand outer-space sweep to close. The trio sounds more smoothly gelled than ever stepping through snappy turns and flighty detours alike. As impressive as the back-history gimmick is, it feels more authentic and yet less necessary every time—any jokes aside, this Sabbath can hold its own with any jazz and/or rock combo out there.

Track Listing

Into The Void; Spiral Architect; Warning; The Wizard; Electric Funeral; Supernaut; War Pigs

Personnel

Jazz Sabbath
band / ensemble / orchestra
Juan Take
drums
Additional Instrumentation

Milton Keanes: Rhodes & Moog; Wes Tostrayer: Guitar; Hugh Jampton: Saxophone; Leighton B’zard: Hammond & Clavinet; Willy Makit: Trumpet; Al Dentay: Guitar; Francis Mellie: Percussion

Album information

Title: The 1968 Tapes | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Blacklake

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT



Jazz Sabbath Concerts

Nov 1 Sat
Nov 7 Fri
Sep 5 Sat
Jazz Sabbath
Musis Arnhem
Arnhem, Netherlands
Sep 6 Sun
Jazz Sabbath
De Oosterpoort
Groningen, Netherlands

Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.