“High quality music that many people around the world can enjoy, no matter where they are,” is a statement from Andreas Brunner-Schwer, MPS Records. The German label family SABA and MPS extended this sentiment to include music from musicians all over the world, no matter where they came from – and “Spiritual Jazz 17: SABA / MPS” is dedicated to this theme.

In the 1960s/1970s, both labels released a wealth of music from a variety of international jazz musicians from North and South America, Europe, the Caribbean and the Far East. The aim was to release jazz that was exciting, innovative and interesting, regardless of style: there was swing, blues, bop, avant-garde, fusion – and spiritual jazz. Plurality became a defining characteristic and the immense breadth of their output made both SABA and MPS worthy European counterparts to US labels such as Blue Note and Impulse.

“Spiritual Jazz 17: SABA / MPS” presents international contributions from Americans Elvin Jones, Nathan Davis & Dave Pike, Europeans Pedro Iturralde, Jef Gilson and George Gruntz, and Japan’s Hideo Shiraki, among others. The extensive liner notes outline the history of the labels and explain the spirit and philosophy behind the long-standing record label and the musicians who poured their souls into the recording process. Friedheim Schulz, who oversaw many of the sessions, has fond memories, “These guys had ideas, they had their special thing, it was the time when there were a lot of ideas and new sounds and so on, and (SABA owner) Hans Georg always believed that people should make their own kind of music. So he gave them the chance to record and then he just put out the albums and that was it! The musicians really played what they wanted to play.”

Their great legacy is a musical tradition that has survived the strains of time, and prime examples have been selected from the SABA and MPS catalogs to uphold their own heritage in the long-running “Spiritual Jazz” series.

LP1
1. Gambang Suling
2. Little Lady
3. Evolution
4. Raga Jeeva Swara
5. Matsuri No Genzo
6. Never Let It End

LP2
1. Blue Dance
2. Gratuliere Movement A
3. Depression and Illusion
4. Hightime Keepsakes
5. Veleta De Tu Viento
6. Ouverture San Remo