Let the Chaos Calm You: ep. 37 – 21st-Century Spiritual Jazz #1

Spiritual jazz isn’t a strict genre—it’s a state of mind. Born in the late ’60s with Coltrane, Sanders, and Alice Coltrane, it blends free jazz, hard bop, avant-garde, and fusion. Rooted in world religions, African diasporic traditions, and Eastern philosophy, it’s also political—a cry for freedom, a refusal to be silenced, and a stand against oppression. Sometimes meditative, sometimes ecstatic, it’s a prayer, a conversation with the universe, and a journey inward toward truth.
In the 21st century, artists like Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, and Nduduzo Makhathini carry it forward. Our first journey, A Prayer to the Sun, traces the day’s arc: Binker and Moses’ drum-born dawn, Alan Braufman’s brass welcome, EABS’ morning warmth, Birchall and The Heliocentrics at noon, Garcia and Halsall in full blaze, Village of the Sun’s golden hour, and Grossmann’s Sundown—a final bow to the life-giving light that has guided us for millennia.