1970s Post-“Jesus Christ Superstar” Religious Jazz Rock Scores?
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Greetings, all,
Happy New Year!
One of the micro genres that obsesses me is post-“Jesus Christ Superstar” religious concept albums, and individual tracks that are in this mode. I’m looking for big productions, with choirs over jazz/funk/rock beds.
Obvious examples outside of film music would include several David Axelrod albums, in particular, Earth Rot, Mass in F Minor, and Release of an Oath; Lalo Schifrin’s Rock Requiem; and Gershon Kingsley’s Shabbat for Today.
Some film music tracks that approach what I’m seeking include “Book of Ezekiel” from Peter Thomas’s Chariots of the Gods; “Hymn to the Bomb,” in particular the LP version, from Leonard Rosenman’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes; and the Ralph Carmichael/Pat Boone masterpiece “The Addict’s Prayer,” from The Cross and the Switchblade.
I’m not looking for a laundry list of “religious” scores or random scores with choirs. I’m also not looking for “gospel” music per se. I’m looking for a very specific aesthetic that existed from around 1969 to about 1975. Granted, there may be good examples from slightly later.
Thanks in advance!
Happy New Year, Dr. Jacoby, happy to see you pop in with an intriguing topic.
But holy hallucinations, Batman, that’s a micro genre alright! We need the Graham Watts and Jim Phelpses of this forum to step up (and maybe Tall Guy for possible Morricones?). But I love a good challenge, and I have to say the genre itself sounds very interesting — kind of like a merger of various other threads we’ve done here (religious music, jazz scores).
I did go scrambling through my collection to see if I could find anything remotely like that, but I’m really, really struggling. I mean, there’s Peter Gabriel’s THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, but that’s a) much later and b) more world music than jazz/rock. And if you count that, there’s also that whole genre of Gregorian New Age of the 90s, with Era and the like. And that’s definitely NOT what you’re looking for.
There’s Pino Donaggio’s MORTE IN VATICANO, but again, that’s 1982 and more religious chorus with easy listening pop backbeats than jazz/rock. I have to take on the thinking cap for this one.
Been listening to the examples in the first post. Lots of lovely stuff there, but I’m still struggling to find more in the same style. Would some of Mahavishnu Orchestra’s 70s stuff qualify? It’s too wild and out there for my taste, but I know that some of their albums, like VISIONS OF THE EMERALD BEYOND (1975) had a spiritual slant.
Talk about a micro-genre if there ever was one.
There is of course Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass”, which is a “classical” composition that mixes orchestra with (then) contemporary styles like jazz, rock, and blues, alongside gospel, and pop. But it’s still more “classical”. And Mike Oldfield’s “Millenium Bell”, which may not be strictly religious, but does have spiritual overtones and is with orchestra, choir, electronics, etc… but from a later time frame.
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