Spooky Jazz

March 13, 2016 11:25 AM

I like jazz that's mournful, spooky, or creepy. Help me find more.

Current tunes that scratch this itch:

"Gloomy Sunday"
"Strange Fruit"
"St. James Infirmary"
"Lonely Woman"

posted by Prunesquallor to Media & Arts (31 answers total)

All Bessie Smith, even the upbeat numbers, hit this space in my opinion.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 11:29 AM on March 13, 2016

Maybe Artie Shaw, Nightmare.
posted by dilettante at 11:47 AM on March 13, 2016

Stormy Weather can be like this depending on the performer.

Also, it's not actually jazz, but I love all these songs and I feel the same way when I listen to House of the Rising Sun.
posted by town of cats at 1:29 PM on March 13, 2016

Grant Green, Idle Moments.
posted by languagehat at 1:40 PM on March 13, 2016

Also, Mal Waldron's album Left Alone is pretty much like this from beginning to end (leaving aside the final four-minute cut, which is Waldron talking about Billie Holiday); it's only half an hour of music, which is short for a CD, but that's half an hour of itch-scratching, which may well be worth it to you. I've never regretted buying it.
posted by languagehat at 1:48 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

Always thought East St. Louis Toodle-oo was spooky.
posted by BillMcMurdo at 1:49 PM on March 13, 2016

Tommy Johnson's falsetto may be appropriately spooky.
posted by Paragon at 1:56 PM on March 13, 2016

Does it have to have vocals? If not check out Jazz From Hell by Frank Zappa. There's a whole album of great stuff there.
posted by Splunge at 2:22 PM on March 13, 2016

You can try Nina Simone? Her rendition of I loves you porgy is definitive and sends chills down my spine.
posted by vacapinta at 2:41 PM on March 13, 2016

Bobby Brown Quartet, Venus Velvet.
posted by Sonny Jim at 3:24 PM on March 13, 2016

You might like some of these doom-jazz recommendations.
posted by box at 3:44 PM on March 13, 2016

Audrey by Paul Desmond.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 4:03 PM on March 13, 2016

Miles Davis, 'Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud'
posted by Haruspex at 4:33 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

Barry Adamson - Jazz Devil

I'm on my mobile device and can't link it but it's on YouTube
posted by janey47 at 4:39 PM on March 13, 2016

Ran Blake, The Short Life of Barbara Monk.
posted by languagehat at 4:48 PM on March 13, 2016

Swing You Sinners (song starts at 2:20)
posted by Chenko at 5:14 PM on March 13, 2016

I've always found Fats Waller at the organ, as used in Eraserhead, to be absolutely terrifying. Perhaps that's just me, or David Lynch or a little of both.
posted by Grangousier at 5:46 PM on March 13, 2016

Seconding Idle Moments for mournful.

Andy Bey - Tuesdays in Chinatown

This might be more scary/upsetting than spooky, and more of a concept album, but Sing me a Song of Songmy is super unsettling.
posted by Standard Orange at 5:53 PM on March 13, 2016

What Haruspex said. Another soundtrack that could qualify: some of Andre Previn's score for The Subterraneans (1960), featuring Gerry Mulligan and Art Pepper. A movie based on Kerouac’s novella.
posted by LeLiLo at 6:03 PM on March 13, 2016

Maybe a bit too much, but,

Weather Report, cut Scarlet Woman from the album Mysterious Traveller

Patricia Barber, cut Pieces from Verse

Patricia Barber, cut Constantinople from Modern Cool

Patricia Barber, cut Ode to Billie Joe from Cafe Blue

Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, cut As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls from album of same title

Norah Jones, cut Not Too Late from Not Too Late from album of same name

Michael Brecker, cut Midnight Mood from Nearness of You: The Ballad Book

Michael Brecker, cut Don’t Try This At Home from Don’t Try this At Home

Mark Isham/Art Lande cut Melancholy Of Departure, Surface and Symbol from We Begin

Holly Cole Calling You, cut I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life, from Blame It On My Youth

Herbie Hancock, cut Solitude from River: The Joni Letters

Dianna Krall, cuts Almost Blue, The Girl in the Other Room, Narrow Daylight, Abandoned Masquerade from The Girl in the Other Room mournful, mournful, mournful

Yusef Latiff, albums Eastern Sounds and Live at Pep’s

Yellowjackets, cut Measure of a Man from Lifecycle

Wayne Shorter, cut Infant Eyes from Footprints: The Life and Music of Wayne Shorter (Celebration of a master saxophonist’s career)

Terrance Blanchard & Jane Monheit, cuts Too Young to go Steady, Lost In A Fog from Let’s Get Lost (Good all around)

McCoy Tyner, cut Sama Layuca from Quartet (excellent album)

Les McCann & Eddie Harris album Swiss Movement (Compared to What on You Tube, some of the band members seemed a bit startled as to how well the tune shaped up)

Spooky, Creepy, Mournful, not necessarily jazz or jazz related, Miranda Sex Garden album Iris and their album Fairytales of Slavery (cut Serial Angels)

Go bizarre: Twentieth Century Avant Garde Classical Takemitsu, the album Takemitsu

And even more bizarre, creepy, mournful, spooky, classical: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, album Penderecki: Hiroshima Polish Radio and Television Symphony. Positively hair raising.
posted by WinstonJulia at 7:05 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wow that Andy Bey is top notch. How'd I miss him?

Anyway since I'm here now I'll throw in a few. Someone already mentioned Ellington, but only one. The other spooky Ellington I can think of is Chelsea Bridge, the Mooche, and Blue Serge. How about Mingus's Goodbye Pork Pie Hat? There's an old tune by Rudy Vallee called Deep Night, it has a nice air of mysteree.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 8:13 PM on March 13, 2016

Lullaby of the Doomed - Benny Green
What Is There To Say? - Gerry Mulligan

This prior thread has lots of good suggestions too.
posted by alhadro at 9:10 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]

Charles Mingus - Canon. I could listen to this for hours.

Angelo Badalamenti - Red Bats With Teeth. More David Lynch (this is the super-unsettling nightclub saxophone piece from Lost Highway; even more unsettling if you've seen the film).
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 12:59 AM on March 14, 2016

I suppose scary Lynch-based jazz might be a genre of itself - Jimmy Scott - Sycamore Trees
posted by Grangousier at 2:57 AM on March 14, 2016

Bohren & Der Club Of Gore are the masters of mournful, spooky & creepy jazz biznis.

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble/Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation might be a bit avant but there's plenty of creepy impro to love

Also, The Necks, who are thoroughly marvellous live.
posted by prismatic7 at 3:21 AM on March 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

You've gotta listen to the title track from Archie Shepp's album Blasé. And We Insist! By Max Roach is worth your time too - rarely listen to that one, it's so intense.
posted by Ted Maul at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2016

The track "Rain Forest" from John Abercrombie's album While We're Young always makes me think of the Minotaur stalking a victim in the Labyrinth. Given the title of the song, that's probably not what the composer was going for, but it still seems pretty spooky to me.
posted by crLLC at 7:30 AM on March 14, 2016

Duke Ellington Fleurette Africaine
Andrew Hill Passing Ships
posted by lowest east side at 10:34 AM on March 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

> This prior thread has lots of good suggestions too.

Good find! And this comment by GamblingBlues reminds me of Miles — how could I forget his Prestige albums? And that reminds me (for one panicked moment I thought this was a Miles cut and was going crazy trying to find it):

Charles Mingus, Memories Of You. Tears my heart out every time.
posted by languagehat at 11:26 AM on March 14, 2016

Spooky, mournful, haunting, beautiful: Miles Davis covering, believe it or not, the CSNY tune Guinnevere.

(Bonus spookiness: at the end, Miles suddenly whispers "SOCK IT TO ME" in a way that makes me leap from my chair covered in goosebumps. You've been warned.)
posted by kelborel at 11:48 AM on March 14, 2016

This thread has some suggestions that might fit the bill.
posted by merriment at 2:12 PM on March 14, 2016